Newsbriefs

PRESSING FOR WAGE HIKE

LABOR groups under the Kahugpongan sa Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Sugbo (KANAMASO) called on the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Central Visayas (RTWPB-7) to grant their respective petitions for an across-the-board-wage hike.

The Alliance of Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) filed for a P100 across-the-board wage increase for workers in Central Visayas, while the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) asked for a P120 wage hike.

Under the Labor Code, no new wage hike can be implemented within a year unless supervening factors justify such changes.

Ernesto Carreon, labor representative to the wage board, said there are many supervening conditions to justify granting a wage hike.

He cited the rising inflation and fare rates and increases in the prices of fuel and commodities as factors.

The APL also called for the ouster of Regional Director Asteria Caberte of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-7) from the wage board.

The group said Caberte is biased for the business community, a charge Caberte denied.

The regional DTI-7 chief had been serving in the region since 1998. Correspondents Patricia Andrea Pateña and Jhunnex Napallacan

‘NO LEGAL STANDING’

THE lawyers for Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia called on the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to dismiss the usurpation of authority case filed against them by the late vice governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr.

Lead counsel Cristina Codilla-Frasco said they requested the DILG to resolve their motion for dismissal on the case before the hearing is reset this month.

She also said they asked the agency to dismiss the vice governor’s daughter from the case.

In their motion, Frasco said Grecylda “Gigi” Sanchez-Zaballero has no legal standing on the case since her father, the chief complainant, passed away.

“The only person who has legal standing on this case is his successor, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale,” she said.

Frasco said Magpale indicated that she doesn’t have any interest in pursuing the case.

She also laughed at the motion for reconsideration filed by businessman Crisologo Saavedra, saying it was foolishness. Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus

FAKE TRICYCLE FRANCHISES

THE City Administrator’s Office of Mandaue City Hall is investigating some of its employees who are allegedly involved in issuing fake franchises to tricycles plying the city routes.

City Administrator James Abadia said their inquiry began after learning that the franchises of some tricycles had serial numbers different from their official receipts issued by the Mandaue City Treasurer’s Office (CTO).

A committee from the City Legal Office headed the investigation into the case.

The master list of City Hall showed there were 2,688 tricycle franchises in the city of which only 1,877 renewed while 826 didn’t back in 2008.

Franchises of tricycles are renewed every three years. CTO chief Regal Oliva said they are prohibiting fixers from transacting with their office.

Abadia said they will also verify if other city government employees are involved in issuing fake tricycle franchises. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos