16 sugar workers’ groups support Arroyo

BACOLOD CITY — Sixteen labor organizations in Negros Occidental recently signed a manifesto of support for President Arroyo, saying her administration has posted gains that proved beneficial to the interest of workers in the sugar industry.

The signatories cited Mrs. Arroyo for the release of the P600-million Sugar Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund which they said benefited the mill districts.

They also lauded Mrs. Arroyo for the transfer of raw and refined sugar from the temporary exclusion list to the sensitive list of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and for the issuance of Executive Order 230 effecting a preferential rate of 48 percent.

They said the Arroyo administration worked for the upward adjustment of the final bound tariff on sugar from 50 percent to 80 percent, the intervention of the National Food Authority (NFA) to stabilize domestic prices, and the reclassification of all products containing 65-percent sugar or premixes, among other things.

The labor groups also hailed the appointment of Secretary Angelo Reyes as anti-smuggling czar.

The manifesto’s 16 signatories are Bernardo Remo, national president of the United Sugar Farmers Organization and Allied Services—TUCP; Zoilo de la Cruz Jr., national president of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines-TUCP; Arturo Ronquillo, national president of the Workers Amalgamated Union of the Philippines; Randy Ronquillo, national president of the Trade Union of Filipino Workers; Jun de la Cruz, national coordinator of the Congress of Independent Organizations-ALU;

Ronald Esponilla, national executive vice president of the Philippine Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Workers’ Union-TUCP; Editha Caceres, deputy secretary of the Fraternal Labor Organization-ALU; Alberto Tibus, president of the PACIWU Riverside Medical Center; Luciano Ilon, president of the Association of Negros Cooperatives Inc.; Marcelo Villones, chairman of the Negros Occidental Sugar Workers Foundation Inc.;

Alan Viñas, president of G.V. and Sons Workers Union; Noel Villarin, president of the NACUSIP Hda. San Vicente de Fuego II; Reynald Nocer, president of NACUSIP Hda. Calbaryo; Loi Montebano, president of NACUSIP Hda. Dalinson; Nonito Duran, president of the PACIWU Orient Marine Fishing Resources Inc.; and Fortunato Salado, president of the CIO-ALU CCBPI Sales Force Union.