Duty Free employees seek early resolution of plunder complaint vs. bosses

Ten employees of Duty Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC) urged the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday to resolve their two-year-old pending plunder complaint against their bosses, whom they accuse of depriving them of employment benefits.

All complainants went to the Ombudsman to file a motion for early resolution and call for the preventive suspension of Chief Operating Officer Vicente Pelagio Angala due to the imminent threat he allegedly poses to them.

"Undersigned plaintiffs are all patiently waiting for the resolution of the above captioned cases after all the pertinent documents and evidence have been filed and submitted," they said in the motion.

"Early resolution of the instant motion has become glaringly exigent as not to frustrate the ends of justice," they added.

Logistics division workers Alexander Sablan, Nestor Zabala, Eric Oracion, Carlito Ardales, Nilo Duarte and Joaquin Vibal, store supervisor Ernesto Mangalindan, stock clerk Francis Daco, and merchandising assistants Romeo Silva Jr. and Rizalino Santos filed the complaint on March 21, 2017.

They said the lack of a resolution two years later has caused them emotional stress, especially since Angala still serves as DFPC's boss.

"The protracted resolution not only caused emotional anguish and severe anxiety to us plaintiffs but has also taken a great toll on our emotional, physical and financial conditions," Sablan and his colleagues said.

All 10 employees were "unknowingly" hired by manpower agency DFP Services Inc., whose incorporators were Angala and his co-respondents.

They said DFPSI only recognized their employment in January 2016 and disregarded the 1998 ruling of the Supreme Court that they are direct hires of DFPC.

The DFPC board offered a compromise reckoning the start of their tenure from 2005, but the complainants said this still "amounted to a complete disregard" of the SC decision.

“Respondents very well know that by acknowledging that the DFPC employees to be government employees from their date of hiring shall be an admission or re-visitation of the illegal assumption of the role as employer by DFPSI,” the complaint read. — BM, GMA News