DOLE Affirms Democrito Mendoza as TUCP President

By TUCP
August 16, 2012

QUEZON CITY  –  In a decision issued by the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Aquino government upheld the Presidency of Atty. Democrito T. Mendoza over the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

The Bureau of Labor Relations ruling stemmed over the disputed leadership of the largest labor center in the Philippines between its erstwhile longtime leader, Atty. Mendoza and his former political lieutenant, former Senator Ernesto F. Herrera.

The BLR ruled that the parties to the dispute must revert to the status quo ante whereby the President of the TUCP is Atty. Democrito T. Mendoza and the Secretary General is Ernesto F. Herrera. The Department of Labor ruling also called for the holding of a special TUCP convention upon finality of the order for the Convention to elect its officers.

“This affirmation by the government of the Presidency of TUCP of Democrito T. Mendoza is a welcome development and lays to rest the spurious, self-serving claim of “Boy Herrera””, said TUCP Vice President and Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) President Gerry Rivera.

“Eighty percent (80%) of TUCP affiliates, including PALEA kept faith that the DOLE-BLR decision would uphold our stand that Atty. Mendoza remains our TUCP President. We are looking forward to the holding of the special convention where we intend to invite observers from the International Labor Organization to show that the great majority of TUCP remains with Mendoza”, said Gerry Rivera.

PALEA-TUCP pointed out that the role of TUCP in organizing a new labor coalition called NAGKAISA, along with the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) and the Partido ng Manggagawa was precisely predicated on the leadership of Mendoza over TUCP.

“Mr. Ernesto Herrera’s past political actions and behavior are interpreted as being supportive of the contractualization program which has led to millions of workers suffering from no security of tenure, working on the basis of 5-months employment contracts,” explained Rivera.

“If Herrera were leading TUCP, NAGKAISA would never have happened. Herrera has huge credibility problems with the bulk of the labor movement holding him responsible for contractualization, on the other hand Mendoza has provided sound guidance to establishing broader labor unity to strengthen security of tenure rights. Mendoza proved to be the true trade unionist. It is really hard to put a good man down,” said Rivera.

Ex-Senator Herrera claimed that Atty. Democrito T. Mendoza resigned from the TUCP Presidency on November 1, 2011 and that by virtue of his position as Secretary General of TUCP, he succeeded to the Presidency. “Atty. Mendoza submitted a letter of resignation to register his displeasure at the financial mismanagement of Mr. Herrera. However the TUCP General Council and the TUCP Executive Board never acted on the letter and actually prevailed on Atty. Mendoza to resume the Presidency. We are pleased that the DOLE has declared Atty. Democrito T. Mendoza as the legal President of TUCP,” said Victorino Balais, President of the Philippine Trade and General Workers Organization (PTGWO) and TUCP Secretary General under Mendoza.