The House of Representatives approved last night Joint Resolution No. 36, more popularly known as SSL 3 (Salary Standardization Law 3), which grants our government workers their first salary hike in 20 years. It also seeks to correct the huge disparity between public and private sector pay scales, after a WB-CSC study showed that senior government employees are underpaid by as much as 70% than their private sector counterparts. The said study also discovered that low-ranking government employees (SG 1-6) are paid at par or even a little higher than their counterparts in the private sector thus resulting in a skewed situation wherein the higher you go in government, the more underpaid you become.
After the House of Representatives, the joint resolution will go to the Senate for ratification. The target date of implementation for the salary hikes is on July 1, 2009, to be released in four tranches. Let's just hope the senators can find time out of their busy campaign schedules to approve the SSL 3 in time for the July deadline.
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I am currently reading "Atrocities and Lies: The Untold Stories of the Communist Party of the Philippines" written by Yettan Liwanag, Jun Alcover, Tito Porras and Matthew Jennings (who despite his name is a Filipino by the way). Published by the National Alliance for Democracy and Freedom Foundation, the book is well-researched and gives a listing of the supposed brutality and corruption in the Kilusan. The authors are all former active members of the CPP-NPA-NDF and their book offers an insiders view of the rebel movement (in all its gory details). Incidentally, one of the authors, Jun Alcover, is now a congressman representing ANAD Party List. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"Deep in the forest of Inopacan in Leyte province in Central Philippines, a suspected comrade was brought to the execution site. The year was 1987 and you could feel the bite of summer on your skin despite the forest cover. There was a terrifying stench of fear in the air; it was the start of Operation Missing Link (OPML) and the systematic killings by comrades of comrades suspected of turning traitors to the cause. Ka Rodel was brought in, his feet were bound in chains and his hands tied at his back. He was walking the last few meters of his life. 'Mga kasama hindi ako nagtraydor!' Whack, went the two-by-two inches wooden club and it landed at the back of his head just above his nape. He fell to the ground and lying on his side he managed to protest his innocence. He struggled to gain a footing despite the chain around his feet, trying to stay alive, fighting for dear life. Whack, a second blow to the same spot. His knees buckled and he fell down again and stood up, yet again. This time the head of the Task Force walked from behind and casually slit the victim's throat with a scythe, blood spattered on the commander's right hand; it was his tenth kill for the day. Moments later, they dragged the corpse to an open pit to join the twenty others who were executed in the same brutal, gruesome manner a few hours back. They called the place "The Garden." It is coincidental, though, that the town is officially called Inopacan (Pilipino word for 'hit' or 'strike with lethal results')."
But perhaps the most memorable (and most damaging) line in the book were the words uttered by a certain Ka Karding, a cadre of the Melito Glor Command based in Southern Tagalog, who supposedly said: "Peke ang rebolusyong ito!" (This revolution is a fake!) With these four simple words, he has managed to encapsulize the true extent of disillusionment in the Kilusan and I wouldn't be surprised if this line will be used as a sort of "counter-battlecry" by government forces to discredit the Communist insurgency in the Philippines.
After the House of Representatives, the joint resolution will go to the Senate for ratification. The target date of implementation for the salary hikes is on July 1, 2009, to be released in four tranches. Let's just hope the senators can find time out of their busy campaign schedules to approve the SSL 3 in time for the July deadline.
***********************
I am currently reading "Atrocities and Lies: The Untold Stories of the Communist Party of the Philippines" written by Yettan Liwanag, Jun Alcover, Tito Porras and Matthew Jennings (who despite his name is a Filipino by the way). Published by the National Alliance for Democracy and Freedom Foundation, the book is well-researched and gives a listing of the supposed brutality and corruption in the Kilusan. The authors are all former active members of the CPP-NPA-NDF and their book offers an insiders view of the rebel movement (in all its gory details). Incidentally, one of the authors, Jun Alcover, is now a congressman representing ANAD Party List. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"Deep in the forest of Inopacan in Leyte province in Central Philippines, a suspected comrade was brought to the execution site. The year was 1987 and you could feel the bite of summer on your skin despite the forest cover. There was a terrifying stench of fear in the air; it was the start of Operation Missing Link (OPML) and the systematic killings by comrades of comrades suspected of turning traitors to the cause. Ka Rodel was brought in, his feet were bound in chains and his hands tied at his back. He was walking the last few meters of his life. 'Mga kasama hindi ako nagtraydor!' Whack, went the two-by-two inches wooden club and it landed at the back of his head just above his nape. He fell to the ground and lying on his side he managed to protest his innocence. He struggled to gain a footing despite the chain around his feet, trying to stay alive, fighting for dear life. Whack, a second blow to the same spot. His knees buckled and he fell down again and stood up, yet again. This time the head of the Task Force walked from behind and casually slit the victim's throat with a scythe, blood spattered on the commander's right hand; it was his tenth kill for the day. Moments later, they dragged the corpse to an open pit to join the twenty others who were executed in the same brutal, gruesome manner a few hours back. They called the place "The Garden." It is coincidental, though, that the town is officially called Inopacan (Pilipino word for 'hit' or 'strike with lethal results')."
But perhaps the most memorable (and most damaging) line in the book were the words uttered by a certain Ka Karding, a cadre of the Melito Glor Command based in Southern Tagalog, who supposedly said: "Peke ang rebolusyong ito!" (This revolution is a fake!) With these four simple words, he has managed to encapsulize the true extent of disillusionment in the Kilusan and I wouldn't be surprised if this line will be used as a sort of "counter-battlecry" by government forces to discredit the Communist insurgency in the Philippines.
2 comments:
Good to know that you have a copy of our book (Atrocities & Lies....) Hope you'll continue following our crusade if not actively support the pro-democratic cause.
The 'national democratic revolution' espoused by these maoist CPP-NPA-NDF is not an ideology for change but a political cult for extortion designed for the megalomaniac interests of Joma Sison.
Again, madamo gid nga salamat sa pagdala mo sang libro namon sa blog nga ini. Ilonggo man ako kag anay nangin parte sang maoista nga kahublagan sa Isla sang Panay.
We must not be afraid of these maoist evils!
More power to you.
Tito A. Porras (kadre_porras@yahoo.com)
Lovedd reading this thanks
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