MMDA workers to file raps over benefits

MANILA, Philippines - Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) workers protesting the agency’s alleged refusal to release their benefits under the collective negotiation agreement (CNA) signed last year are threatening to file a graft case against the agency’s officials before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Members of the 4,000-strong Kapisanan para sa Kagalingan ng mga Kawani ng MMDA (KKK-MMDA) have been maintaining a picket line since Monday at the MMDA building in Makati City in a bid to pressure MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino to meet them for a dialog on their demand.

Teresa Gonzales, KKK-MMDA secretary general, said each member of their group should have been given P25,000 as a cash bonus after the signing of the CNA between them and MMDA officials in August last year.

“We waited one year for this. Chairman Tolentino does not want to talk to us,” she said. “If need be, we will file charges against them before the Ombudsman.”

Gonzales added that their group has asked the Senate’s blue ribbon committee to look into the case. She added that MMDA workers have regularly received their cash incentives after each signing of the CNA since the term of former MMDA chairman Benjamin Abalos.

Gonzales said the MMDA also has no reason not to release the cash incentives for the workers as the agency maintains a P211-million time deposit at the Philippine National Bank.

The MMDA earlier said the amount could not be used for the workers’ cash incentives as the fund is being used by the agency to shore up its operating expenses. Gonzales said the MMDA should have anticipated its operating expenses and properly included these in its budget request.

MMDA general manager Corazon Jimenez said the agency could not release the cash incentives as it has no savings to fund it.

“The CNA signing bonus should come from saving measures of the entire agency. The financial statements will show that we do not have savings with the enormous task of the MMDA. When the CNA was signed in August 2012, we had a slashed budget,” Jimenez said.