The arrogance of a giant company’s official

The Municipality of Bangui was host to the 40^th Annual General Membership Assembly (AGMA) of the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) last October 25, 2014 wherein Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla was the guest of honor and speaker. The Ilocos Norte media conducted an impromptu interview with him but for his paranoid press staff, freshly shaken I would suppose, by the House of Representative's denial of a Petilla-authored request for presidential emergency energy powers, we were only able to ask about five questions, three above what his lady press staff originally allowed us to ask. The amiable Energy secretary was unquestionably evasive that when asked of his impressions about our windmills, he merely said they were "impressive," sans any further elaboration, or even a small semblance of patronizing words for the proud citizens of the windmill towns to savor. Finding this kind of a bland reaction from the country's Energy secretary on energy-contributing projects is just mind boggling, yet it tends to fortify the mounting suspicion that Mr. Petilla is not up to his job.

I also wanted to ask the good secretary if the DOE has the power to impose sanctions on renewable energy builders that do not adhere to labor and tax laws. I wanted to raise this question with him because one of the renewable energy builders here has not been paying for and remitting their SSS dues for their laborers. Further, they have been paying their employees short of their rendered hours—a fact that had been reported once to its management early on, and several times this time around, with no substantive response but unthinkable apathy—and that they were never furnished copy of their signed employment contract, even when they asked for it, and were never given any pay slip whenever they get paid, even when they asked for it likewise.

I am talking about the North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp., (NLREC) which is owned beneficially by the Ayala Corp., partnering with the GSIS and UPC Renewables headed by an American guy named, Bryan Caffyn, who refers himself as “chairman” in his correspondences and who was acting also as some sort of the operations big boss of the consortium, as his interfaced relations with contractors and employees have indicated. The NLREC's president, incidentally, is a lawyer, one named, Atty. Fred Penaflor, who loves to give you a runaround when you bring up an important issue with him that does not merit his while. 

I am saying this because I myself was a victim of his confidence-winning-runaround mambo jumbo just lately. The laborers they had terminated came to me for help regarding their being short-paid in salary on several occasions before and on their last payroll. I called up Atty. Penaflor last Oct. 18 about this fact and asked if he could meet with the complaining laborers. He said he was to meet with them on the 21^st. The terminated employees skipped going to their new-found work that day in hopes that they could meet and be heard by the head honcho of the company. 

Sadly, Penaflor never showed up, neither did he call or text in a reason until I contacted him to request for a re-schedule to which he advised that their company lawyer will meet with us instead. Did the company lawyer show up? No sir! Not an inch of his shadow; not even the courtesy of an advice, before and after. Unperturbed, I texted him up again to inquire when they could really meet with their former laborers. This time, he made a 360 degree turnaround: they, the NLREC, will not meet the complaining employees—after all—because they were originally hired by Hansei Inc., NLREC's main contractor to their power transmission towers, and as such Hansei should deal with the situation. Consequently, Penaflor advised that he was going to instruct Engr. Walbert Ocampo, the operations manager of Hansei, to call me up regarding the issue. For two days I waited for Ocampo's call, and for two days I received not a single ring from him, of which Penaflor was appropriately and timely apprised. 

The laborers finally gave up on Penaflor and trouped instead to Mayor Diosdado Garvida's office on Oct. 24 for assistance, to no avail likewise notwithstanding that the mayor and Penaflor talked on the phone in the presence of the laborers for about 30 minutes. 

Are Penaflor's evasive and disgusting stunts, this writer wonders, emblematic of the arrogance of giant companies, such as the Ayalas, in dealing with their lowly laborers' predicaments? It may not be so, but Penaflor's style of running his vaunted office seems to indicate the other way around. NLREC, viewed to be clothed with a pontifical robe of trust, on account of the Ayala name, came to Ilocos Norte perceived to light up a candle of hope—not misery—for the hard-working Ilocanos. But this company's cagey Bicolano president does not seem to see it this way because he appears to find comfort and solace in wielding and imposing his ascendancy on rudimentary matters within the ambit of his law degree upon ordinary citizens, regardless that the issue could adversely impact on the otherwise impressive images of his principals, the likes of the Ayalas and the GSIS. 

While it is true that Hansei was the original employer of the laborers, it is also true that Hansei was acting for and in behalf of NLREC, its principal, which means that by the principle of agency, the principal is not absolutely free from liability on the agent's omissions. Further, Hansei's contract with NLREC was terminated some four months ahead of the laborers' work termination but the latter remained in their jobs and were made to understand that they were to be paid directly by NLREC thenceforth. 

Further, NLREC, the principal, should not be excused from not verifying via audit or otherwise its agent's non-compliance to our labor and tax laws, under which the laborers' salary short-payments, unremitted SSS contributions, their being refused to be furnished copy of their signed employment contracts, notwithstanding that they asked for them, and their not being given pay-slips on their wages fall. But even granting that NLREC has no obligation to check its agent's compliance to rules and regulations, it has to have yet a moral obligation to listen to its laborers' dilemma and go the extra mile to effecting a solution. After all, their towers would not have risen where they are now, ready to amass billions in revenue, without the sweat and blood of these short-paid laborers that the sleek Atty. Penaflor has so arrogantly refused to meet.