Press Release
August 16, 2013
PALEA
Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association
(PALEA) who were asked to fork over P2.4 million in an extortion attempt trooped
to the Department of Justice (DOJ) this morning as the union filed an administrative
complaint against assistant prosecutor Diosdado Solidum, Jr. Scores of PALEA
members picketed the DOJ main office in Ermita with placards calling for “Justice
for PALEA, Suspend Solidum” and “Justice for workers, End contractualization.”
In PALEA’s complaint it asked for the immediate suspension
of Solidum. The union welcomed the filing of separate charges last Tuesday by
the Ombudsman against Solidum but he was freed after posting bail last Wednesday
and yesterday he already reported for work in the DOJ.
PALEA also called on the DOJ to dismiss the case against 241
of its members for alleged violation of the Civil Aviation Authority Act (CAAA).
“We salute DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima for her iron will to fight corruption
within her department and in government as shown in the entrapment of Solidum
and the crusade against Juliet Lim Napoles. But we urge her to struggle for
justice too as workers are wronged by fiscals and prosecutors who make erroneous
anti-labor decisions,” asserted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of
Partido ng Manggagawa.
A new DOJ prosecutor is now
handling PALEA’s petition for review after Solidum was arrested in an
entrapment operation Thursday last week. PALEA filed the petition for review
after a Pasay
fiscal found probable cause for violation of Section 81 of CAAA pertaining to
disruption and destruction of airport services and facilities during PALEA’s
protest against outsourcing in September 27, 2011.
“It
behooves the DOJ to dismiss the harassment case against the PALEA 241 because
of a fatal flaw. Lawyers of Philippine Airlines do not have any clearance from
the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in filing the case. Any complaint
arising from a labor dispute requires such a clearance before civil courts can
take jurisdiction,” Rivera asserted.
Rivera added that the harassment case has a chilling effect
on labor relations and is a clear and present danger to workers rights. “Labor protests will then be banned in the
aviation industry with workers penalized by both imprisonment and fine in
violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights. This will be a grave precedent
and new special laws can then be enacted to deny workers the freedoms of
assembly, expression, self-organization and strike,” he
explained.
He explained that “The
decision is void of any legal basis as no damages were committed to airport
facilities. Moreover the case is a labor issue and thus prior authority from
the DOLE and DOJ should have been secured prior to the filing of the complaint.
The CAAA is also explicit in providing that 'only the Director General' can
file the appropriate charges and not the PAL Vice-President of the Airport
Services as in this case.”
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