Regent Foods eyes moving out of Pasig City for “unjust” arrangement with Mayor Vico

Regent Foods Corp. (RFC) on Tuesday said it may move its business outside of Pasig City, as Mayor Regis “Vico” Sotto has already made up his mind to pursue an “unjust” arrangement with the company.

The snack food maker is still banking on the judicial system, but after Sotto’s recent pronouncements, it may consider moving its business somewhere else.

“Moving forward, RFC may simply accept its fate that the Pasig City Administration will unjustly make life hard for it and its 400-strong workforce, and contemplate simply bringing its business elsewhere—a truly painful outcome for a corporation that has considered Pasig City its home for … three decades now,” the company said in a statement.

On Sunday, Sotto criticized the company’s treatment of workers in protest—saying RFC is risking its  relations with the local government if it does not drop charges against its employees.

“These people are not criminals; they do not have the goal of hurting you. They are fighting for what they believe to be just. You can continue with the labor dispute without sending the poor and powerless to jail!” the mayor said.

Sotto also helped bail workers who were arrested during a picket dispersal.

RFC officials got in touch with Sotto, but only to be “lectured” by the mayor to be “more humanitarian,” the company said.

“Mayor Vico, however, refused to listen to RFC’s side and consciously turned a blind eye to the plight of the majority of RFC’s employees,” it said.

“He also failed to see the company’s humanitarian effort in providing its affected employees financial assistance during such a dark time in the company’s history,” it added.

RFC said it will continue to trust the judicial system. Twenty-three individuals have been charged with causing physical injuries before the Pasig City Hall of Justice.

“RFC still maintains its position and will not be cowered by the mayor’s threats. RFC trusts the justice system, not because it can afford to, but because it has to,” the company said.

"RFC can only hope that Mayor Vico will also offer it the same courtesy, as is required by the basic of rules of fairness,” the company added. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News