Stop protesting and help us cut back on costs instead.
This was the advice given on Monday by Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino to employees who have been staging rallies to demand the release of their benefits under the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) signed by the agency’s top officials last year.
Wielding placards and a white casket, members of the KKK-MMDA (Kapisanan para sa Kagalingan ng mga Kawani ng MMDA) held a protest in the morning in front of the agency’s office in Makati City to seek the release of a P25,000 cash incentive per employee. Most of the protesters were off-duty traffic constables.
In an interview at his office, Tolentino clarified that under the CNA, the cash incentive would be taken from the agency’s savings.
“If there are no savings, there will be no incentives. Savings should be a joint effort of both the management and the employees,” he said.
“What they should do to get that incentive is to save, turn off the lights during lunch breaks and the faucets when they are not using them,” Tolentino added.
Tess Gonzales, the union’s secretary general, however, claimed that the agency has P211 million kept in a time deposit account at Philippine National Bank.
But according to Tolentino, the amount cannot be considered savings. [Keeping money in time deposit accounts) has been a practice since the time of former MMDA heads Benjamin Abalos and Bayani Fernando,” Tolentino said, adding that the fund would be used for future operations.