MEDIATION talks to resolve the labor dispute between the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) and its employees’ union came to a deadlock as their representatives sat with labor department officials on Wednesday.

                Jose Apollo Ado, president of the PNCC-Skyway Employees Union, said the management still refused to heed the order from Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to allow the dismissed workers to return to their jobs until the case is resolved.

                Brion ordered the company to accept the 700 workers who lost their job last month after the government assumed jurisdiction over the dispute.

                “The management has refused to take us back in. They said that their manpower is already complete, so they don’t need us anymore,” Ado told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

                Ado said the highway’s new management, the Skyway O&M Corp., has rehired some contractual workers from way back as 2005 after it dismissed about 700 employees in December.

                “They said that being under the old management we are no longer employees of the corporation,” he added.

                The employees sued the management for alleged union busting after they were dismissed last month.

                “The lack of any serious effort from the PNCC Skyway Corp. to respect the labor department’s order, despite three conciliation-mediation hearings, should be enough to hold the company and its parent company, PNCC, liable for moral and exemplary damages,” said Ado.

                He described Brion’s alleged inaction to the PNCC management defiance as “foot-dragging,” since he claims there are reports that the labor chief intends to settle the dispute before the end of the month.

                Meanwhile, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Parañaque City ordered the PNCC Skyway Corp., PNCC, Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. and the Toll Regulatory Board to file their comments on the amended complaint filed by the PNCC employees’ union and PNCC traffic management and security department workers.

                Jaime Soriano, lawyer of the workers, said the workers submitted an amended complaint on Wednesday. They filed an initial complaint on January 3.

                Judge Raul de Leon of  Branch 258 of the RTC in Parañaque City said he would decide on petition for an injunction on January 18.

                Ramon Borromeo, officer in charge of the Skyway O&M Corp.,did not reply to text messages asking for his comment.

                In an earlier interview, he said the workers have been offered generous separation benefits with the chance to be taken in by the new management, but that many of them still insisted they should be automatically hired. --With P. Atienza

Citizen’s debt audit commish pushed

RESPECTED economists, civil-society leaders and political analysts have launched the people’s petition for the creation of an Independent Citizens’ Debt Audit Commission that will conduct a critical, comprehensive, participatory and transparent examination of the Philippine public debt and contingent liabilities.

THERE should be an enabling law before the government can start implementing a national identification (ID) system, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita clarified Wednesday.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Two senior policemen were shot and killed while they were jogging on Wednesday morning on an airstrip near a military base in Sulu, where the offensive against the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf continues.

THE officer in charge of the Air Transportation Office (ATO) on Wednesday urged President Arroyo to sign a bill that creates the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), giving autonomy to the aviation body so funds for a full radar coverage of the country could be made available.

MEDIATION talks to resolve the labor dispute between the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) and its employees’ union came to a deadlock as their representatives sat with labor department officials on Wednesday.

THE multisectoral advisory council of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to meet next week to iron out the specifications for the technology that will be used to automate the 2010 presidential elections, in a move to finally modernize the elections.

A PARTY-LESS legislator said on Wednesday that the 2010 presidential elections should not be limited to “political bosses” even as he raised the need to democratize the selection process this early just like in the United States.