MANILA, Philippine ? It won?t be a merry Christmas for at least 1,000 workers of the government-owned Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC) who are facing the threat of losing their jobs.

Yesterday, Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) executive director Manuel Imperial issued a final order giving PNCC until 2 p.m. to turn over management and operations of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) to Manila Toll Expressway System Inc. (Mates).

Mates is a private group backed by Malaysian toll operator MTD Capital Bhd.

But just an hour before the 2 p.m. deadline, Judge Amelia Manalastas of the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 268 granted a three-day temporary restraining order preventing Mates from taking over PNCC?s duties.

Extreme urgency

Manalastas said there was an ?extreme urgency? to issue a restraining order to ?prevent a violent confrontation between the people of PNCC and Mates, unnecessary loss of revenues, sudden displacement of employees and the confusion and massive traffic? which could arise from the abrupt takeover of the expressway?s operations.

In a press conference, Raul Salunson, PNCC Tollways Supervisors Association president, said Imperial?s order would leave all of them?from the supervisors to the rank-and-file and toll tellers?without jobs.

Illegal takeover

He called the takeover illegal and likened it to a ?commando-style coup d? etat.?

PNCC president Theresa Defensor said that on December 6, 49 Mates employees and security guards ?stormed? toll booths being manned by their employees. Armed with a letter from Imperial, the people from Mates tried to force PNCC workers to leave their posts.
Defensor said they asked for help from the police who arrested the 49 people. They also seized nine firearms.

She added that the following day, a dialogue was held among officials of PNCC, Mates and TRB. It was agreed upon during the meeting that instead of a takeover, there would be a handover.

A handover, which normally takes months, meant that PNCC would voluntarily transfer its responsibilities to Mates with the completion of all expressway-related projects, Defensor said.

But on Friday afternoon, she added, Imperial went to her office to give her an order asking the PNCC to immediately turn over to Mates the authority over SLEx operations.

?This is so unfair to the workers. We don?t just fire people. We kept telling (Mates) that we must respect labor laws. We must respect the workers? rights,? Defensor said.

Senate probe

Salunson said they were planning to ask the Senate blue ribbon committee to probe the takeover.

The 30-year concession granted to PNCC to operate the expressway expired in April 2007. The company, however, continued to operate SLEx because of a toll operations certificate issued by TRB with the permission of Mates.

Grace Casquerro, a PNCC toll teller for the past 10 years, said the holiday season would be a sad one.

A single parent, Casquerro said the takeover was very untimely because her child had just been diagnosed with heart disease and needed to undergo an operation.

?Where will I get the money for the operation if I have no job?? she told the Inquirer, adding that the separation pay she would receive was not enough for her to live on.

?We are asking them to have mercy and give us more time,? Casquerro said.