MANIFESTO OF SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY

REGARDING THE PLIGHT OF THE PHILIPPINE

NATIONAL POWER CORPORATION EMPLOYEES AND
SUPERVISORS UNIONS (NECU AND NEWU) IN THE
MATTER OF THE DAMAGE DONE TO THEIR RIGHTS
BY THE ADB POWER SECTOR RESTRUCTURING AND
PRIVATIZATION PROJECT AND POWER SECTOR
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

WHEREAS, The National Power Corporation (NPC). which is

the state-owned electricity generation and transmission utility, was
subjected to privatization under the auspices of loans extended by
Asian Development Bank (ADB), including the Power Sector
Restructuring Program loan, the Power Sector Development
Program and successive loans, including to private sector
“successor” companies;

WHEREAS, As a result of these project and program loans of the

Asian Development Bank, thousands of workers of the NPC, who
are unionized, were retrenched as a consequence of the two above-
mentioned project and program loans of the ADB;

WHEREAS, In the case of those who were eventually rehired by

the management of the NPC, they were essentially re-employed at
salary level 25-30% lower than their previous remuneration levels;

WHEREAS, After the NPC was subjected to restructuring as a

result of these loans, the pre-existing NAPOCOR Employees
Consolidated Union (NECU) and NAPOCOR Employees and
Workers’ Union (NEWU) were deprived by NPC management of
their rights to enter into a collective negotiation agreement (CNA)
with management and to collect their union dues;

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WHEREAS, The events that transpired, i.e., the violation of their
security of tenure, the violation of their rights to unionize, the non-
recognition of their unions, the failure on the part of management
to allow the unions to enter into a collective negotiation agreement
(CNA) and to collect union dues are tantamount to a violation of
their freedom of association as well as their right to organize and
collectively bargain;

WHEREAS, In the case of the successor firms acquiring the

assets of the NPC, the rights of the subsisting employees were
concomitantly set aside, their Manual of Employees Benefits
(MEB) from the time that they were under the NPC disposed of,
the reversion of all these veteran employees to probationary status
was made mandatory, and the retrenchment process continues
unabated as was demonstrated in July 2009 in the case of the
retrenchment of some 1,000 employees of the Transmission
Corporation (TransCo) upon its surrender through a concession
agreement to the joint venture group of Monte Oro Grid and the
National Power Grid of China;

WHEREAS, NPC employee insecurity continues unabated as the

residual NPC has been subjected to an Operation and Maintenance
Agreement (OMA) with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corporation (PSALM) as part and parcel of the
privatization process, whereby the ownership of the assets where
these NPC employees currently work has been effectively
transferred to the PSALM, with whom these aforementioned NPC
employees apparently have no employer-employee relationship;

WHEREAS, The OMA foisted upon the NPC assets ensures to

the PSALM, the right to terminate “redundant”, “trouble-some”,
“uncooperative” employees as it defines the foregoing terms and as
it itself deems necessary and to establish its own organizational
and plantilla set-up. This is tantamount to holding a sword of
Damocles over the retention of these NPC employees, and

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amounts, in real terms, to the constructive dismissal of all the
current employees of the NPC;

WHEREAS, The Philippine Supreme Court has held in no

uncertain terms and in a decision that is final and executory (the
“Dama case”) that the retrenchment of all the employees of the
NPC under the guise of privatization was illegal, and that all
should be brought back to work along with an award of back
wages;

WHEREAS, In the lead to, prior to, during the and after the
privatization process was long on its way, the ADB as sponsor,
progenitor and financial muscle to the restructuring and
privatization project blatantly failed, and still fails, to consult the
workers and the unions of the NPC, contrary to and not in
accordance with the Information Disclosure policy, Consultation &
Participation policies of the ADB itself;

WHEREAS, The ADB in the restructuring and privatization of the

NPC has not met its avowed commitment to its very own Social
Protection Strategy which mentions respect for the Core Labor
Standards and related labor laws as well as its current Handbook
on the Core Labor Standards;

WHEREAS, The ADB can, and should be held liable to the

workers and unions of the NPC for their gross failure to ensure the
respect for the security of tenure and rights of the employees, as
well as for their failure to guard against the union-busting that
subsequently took place;

WHEREAS, The ADB must recognize and acknowledge formally

and through a process designed to address the concerns of the
workers, that the workers’ right to reinstatement and back wages
and wage adjustments due them as determined by the Philippine

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Supreme Court constitute part of the legitimate costs of ADB’s
privatization project;

WHEREAS, The ADB continues to aggrandize national

institutions in pushing its privatization of the NPC through a Power
Sector Development Program Loan and through loans made to
successor firms acquiring various NPC assets, again without
respecting its very own Consultation & Participation Policy,
Information Disclosure policy; Social Protection Strategy and
Handbook on the Core Labor Standards;

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THEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, LET IT BE
RESOLVED, AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, THAT:

The ALNI/Philippines (Asian Labor Network on

IFIs/Philippines) and the Signatories to this Manifesto commit
in solidarity to support the cause of the workers and unions of
the National Power Corporation in their struggle to bring to
light the damage done to them and to demand accountability
from the ADB for their failure to consult the workers and their
unions, for the failure of the ADB in living up to their own
Social Protection Strategy, and for the betrayal of the Bank of
their very own Handbook on Core Labor Standards.

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY

RESOLVED, THAT:

The signatories to this Manifesto call on the Philippine

Government and the Asian Development Bank to put a stop to
the privatization and sale of the remaining assets of the
National Power Corporation, including the turn-over of
Palinpinon GPP, Leyte GPP, Calaca TPP, and sale of Agus and
Pulangui Hydropower Complex, Angat HEP, and Bacon-
Manito GPP.

We further call on the ADB to initiate a multi-stakeholder

review of the privatization experience, including the previously
privatized assets of NPC, with participation of the government,
NECU & NEWU, consumers, the ALNI/P and other groups.

To this end we are furnishing this manifesto of solidarity with

the workers and unions of the NPC to the ADB, the Board of
Directors and Management of the ADB, the International
Labor Organization (ILO), the Congresses of the Philippines,
the United States and the Diet of Japan, the trade union
movements through the International Trade Union

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Confederation-Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), Global Union
Federations (GUFs) and their national centers and the ALNI
coalition partners in Thailand and Indonesia.

DONE THIS 15TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER IN QUEZON CITY,

2009.