MEDIA RELEASE July 23, 1999 A MILLION SIGNATURES FOR STATE WORKERS'
PAY HIKE PUBLIC sector workers today launched a campaign to gather ONE MILLION SIGNATURES in support of their demand for PhP3,000 across-the-board salary increase now. Ferdinand Gaite, President of COURAGE, said in the press conference that the signature campaign is a very popular form that shall provide all government employees nationwide the opportunity to join in their fight for a pay hike. "After the launching of the signature campaign today, we will submit to the Congress the signatures in batches in order to call their attention to the urgency of the need for higher salaries. Public workers unions nationwide shall seek favorable action from their respective legislators in this campaign. We are confident that the Congressmen will easily understand the difficulties of lowly-paid civil servants as their constituents. We are sure that they will be convinced that a monthly base pay of PhP4,400 or an average pay of PhP8,000 is way below the poverty threshold of PhP13,230." "Our persistent campaign for salary increase will remind the Estrada administration that the sorry state of government employees must be given important weight in the deliberation of the national budget. That they are not "spoiled" as claimed by Estrada's good friend Lucio Tan but simply in need of better pay. Instead of listening to his "spoiled friends" like Lucio Tan who can afford to spend many times more than the monthly pay of a civil servant in a birthday bash, Estrada must give attention to the plight of millions of Filipino workers". Ferdinand Gaite said that they are challenging the administration to a debate on the availability of funds needed for their salary increase. The personnel cost of government which was 20.7 % of the 1997 budget has not, in the past 31 years, gone beyond the maximum mark of 25%. Besides, Erap must consider that the additional fund required of PhP52.4 Billions will be distributed to 1.2 millions government employees who are actually running the state functionaries on a daily basis. "Therefore, government expenses for salaries are productive and make sense to public service. What is bad to the public is the squander of public funds in "grand scams" committed by top officials and the allocation for unproductive activities like debt servicing and especially with Estrada's turn around on the release of pork barrel for legislators and more for his office" Moreover, The employees believe that what is extremely dangerous to the public interest is the return of the Marcoses and their loyalist to top positions in government, and the resurgence of crony capitalism. On Monday, July 26, during the annual State of the Nation Address (SONA), the government employees will mobilize its initial force to show its seriousness in winning this campaign for higher pay. "We are taking the streets and there will be no let up in protest actions until The administration heed to our demand. We will also join the other sectors in stopping Estrada's threat to the democratic gains of the Filipino people. As public servants we condemns Estrada's attacks to press freedom and civil liberties as we also declare him unworthy of public trust." # |
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