THE Bangko Sentral management is making life more difficult for an employee, denying him the privilege of overtime work usually on night shifts that boost the meager paychecks of regular work, apparently because of his activism.

Informed sources identified the employee as security officer Jesus Tacata, who has campaigned for higher, more equitable and transparent pay structure for the more than 4,000 rank-and-file employees, no longer works overtime.

The withdrawal of overtime work immediately translates to a significant reduction in his monthly take home pay, a big loss for one whose gross monthly income pales in comparison to the reported six-figure pay checks—never disclosed publicly—of the bank’s officers.

The withdrawal was widely seen as only the initial salvo against Tacata, whose campaign for higher take home pay has been endorsed by no less than Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

Tacata has sought to meet with Bangko Sentral Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. since Day One of his campaign but has been frustrated at every turn.

He got no higher than Human Resources director Dominador Asperilla, who would not give him a copy of the findings and recommendation of the Watson-Wyatt Study, the basis for the central bank’s new salary structure and the implementing guidelines of an ongoing job evaluation program.

These are some of the core irritants rankling rank and filers like Tacata. That he has failed even if he has the support of BSP Employees Association president and lawyer Raul Montero is another bad omen.

Tacata has maintained that the existing salary scheme was “morally impaired and unfair,” it having been prepared “under questionable circumstances and on deliberately vague basis.”

He vowed to persist in the campaign for fairness knowing that the Supreme Court is solidly behind him.

THE P83-million surveillance equipment contract that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) forged with a private company at the height of the government’s preparation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Cebu last year is not only “grossly overpriced” but is also “systematically flawed,” the complainant in the pending plunder case against the DPWH officials claimed.

SENATE investigators will start on Wednesday a formal inquiry into an alleged illegal investment syndicate involving Performance Investment Products Corp. (PIPC), which incurred losses amounting to millions of dollars worth of investments in foreign-exchange trade in what senators suspect to be “another investment scam.”

Soldiers tasked to augment policemen in maintaining peace and order when the antigraft court renders its decision on the plunder case of former President Joseph Estrada got their final order on Tuesday—enforce the decision, be it against or favorable to the fallen leader.

THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday allowed a limited live media coverage of the Sandiganbayan’s promulgation of the decision in the plunder cases against former President Joseph Estrada.

THE Bangko Sentral management is making life more difficult for an employee, denying him the privilege of overtime work usually on night shifts that boost the meager paychecks of regular work, apparently because of his activism.

A FUGITIVE Japanese businessman, who was ordered deported last year but who managed to disappear, finally surfaced at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Monday night and was immediately arrested.

Member-consumers of the Batangas Electric Cooperative II (Batelec II), the country’s largest, are alarmed by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to take over the criminal cases filed by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) against eight board members of the cooperative who have been linked to alleged multi-million-peso irregularities.