Test Drive Volume 1, No. 6 | Page 8

Vanguard 8 Nov. 21 - 26, 2016 PASAR rehabs 2 workers P22M works rushed Isabe, Leyte - This is one for the books. Instead of firing two of its employees addicted to drugs, the company has medically rehabilitated them and reinstated them to their jobs. Legal and corporate affairs officer of the Phil. Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. (PASAR), Atty. Noli Del Rosario, said after the company found out they were under the influence of drugs from their urine tests, they sent them to a psychiatric clinic in Tacloban for treatment, the expenses paid for by the company while under suspension from their jobs. They were restored to their jobs after their rehab, he said. This is in accordance with PASAR’s core values anchored on “fairness, team- work, integrity, malasakit and excellence.” This happened long before Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs as one of the two has already reached his retirement age. As for the Endo (end of contractualization) issue, Del Rosario said their firm is studying if some 700-800 contractual employees can be absorbed as regular employees considering the nature of their work, such as janitorial services, emergency job hiring, and job contracts from agency companies. He said for over a decade ago no labor strike has had occurred in PASAR. This means there is harmonious relation between labor and management in industrial workplace as its workers are among highest paid employees in Eastern Visayas re- gion. He said if PASAR export products decline, it will affect the region’s domestic products as Isabel is the only industrialized town in Eastern Visayas. This happened sometime in 2012 fire incident here and during the 2013 Typhoon Yolanda. He also said the good news is that the National Economic Dev’t. Authority (NEDA) has a “copper road map project,” which means that a Japan company might build a process plant inside Leyte Industrial Development Estate, to transform its copper cathodes into electrical wires and the like two years from now. PASAR envisions that its company is “to be the benchmark copper smelter and refinery.”(By Jun Tarroza) Merida, almost crime-free Merida, Leyte - Given its figures on crime incidence, this town may qualify for the term ‘crime-free’. According to records at the police station, there were two to three cases of salvaged victims dumped in Barangay Can-unzo here two months ago, but the cadavers had no claimants. According to Police Chief Ruben A. Recilla, they had only one death under investigation since the war on drugs began. Recilla said the body had multiple gunshot wounds, and according to his investigators, the victim was not a resident of Merida. The victim had a big “Raquel” tattoo on his breast, behind the right ear and side of his right palm. Recilla suspects the victim was killed in Ormoc City and was dumped in this town. He said the cadaver they buried had a nameless tomb. He said his investigators went to several areas in Ormoc but no one would tell them about the victim, apparently afraid that they would be implicated in his crime. The police chief also said that that was one of three crime incidents for the past five months since July. The two other two cases were a (Eradicating...from p. 7 is a fundamental issue of injustice, or the concentration of resources and wealth of this earth, including political power, in the hands of a few. The culprit is a prevailing global economic, political, and cultural system that worships and defends absolute ownership of private property, even resources that ought to be shared rather than owned individually or by select groups. Truly, the Philippine and the global poverty situ- An old acacia tree marks the center of the town. homicide and a physical injury. This crime rate is very much lower compared with 12 crime incidents of the same period last year, the cop said. He said such crimes in the town are manageable even as they are continuing Oplan “Tokhang” operations, which meted 111 surrenderees to date. He said Merida has slight problems on illegal drugs. There are no big-time pushers after they filed a case against three drug profile personalities here. He said his 22 policemen are sufficient to serve nearly 30,000 constituents. To keep illegal drugs away from the town, the police continue to educate the people here about drug awareness through symposiums, house visits, and implementation of the curfew hours for minors. In the words of one local officials:”Maayo na siya nga hepe kay simple, boutan, ug motrabaho sab. Dili parehas niadtong una nga hepe nga kusog momasyada sa buwangan (He is a good chief because he is simple, good and diligent. He is unlike the previous chief who frequented the cockpit.)”. (By Jun Tarroza) ation cries for a just re-distribution of the wealth of the earth such that the poor majority who have as much right as the few rich to lead a decent, human living are also benefited. More than this, eradicating extreme global poverty requires governmental, nongovernmental, inter-governmental and inter-nongovernmental collaboration towards progress of all peoples, by all peoples and for all peoples. (Next serial: Some Strategies to Eradicate Extreme Poverty) (Rewriting...from p. 7 a free press, and we don’t have m