Iggy: Workers’ leader not from Arroyos’ hacienda

The supposed leader of the workers of the sugarcane plantation owned by the family of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who have complained about the non-payment of the right wages due them does not actually come from the hacienda, Negros Occidental Rep. Iggy Arroyo said yesterday.

Rep. Arroyo, a brother of the First Gentleman, said Ricardo Gargantiel is not one of the workers in their 157-hectare Hacienda Bacan in Isabela, Negros Occidental.

"He is from Binalbagan, which is another farm. It was ours but we have already given it (to the government under the) land reform (program). Most of the 24 signatories have been misled to sign and some (signatures) were even forged," he told The STAR.

Rep. Arroyo cited the case of Vicente Garay who, he said, "didn’t know what he was made to sign."

He added that the sugarcane workers were enticed to sign on the pretext of something else, but not non-payment of right wages, as stated in Gargantiel’s complaint in the labor department.

He suspects that Task Force Mapalad was behind the move as "they are trying to invade all the farms in Negros."

"Pinapasukan nila kahit hindi naman sila ang (They are entering farms even if they are not the) beneficiaries. They are trying to create trouble, especially now that the SEA Games will be held here," he said.

Gargantiel filed the complaint with the Department of Labor and Employment in Western Visayas, claiming that the Arroyos have not paid him and 24 other workers their mandated minimum wages and other benefits in the past three years.

He said Hacienda Bacan is classified as a "plantation sugar enterprise," thus its 68 farm workers are entitled to receive a daily minimum wage of P180 based on the latest regional wage order issued last June.

"We only have a salary for six months so if you compute it, our annual salary is only P11,400, which means that most of us are getting only P31 a day," he said.