(Editor’s note: Charity at GOCCs and tragedy at Quirino Grandstand need a fine distinction as noted by the author.)

LABOR-management relation is specifically defined in a collective bargaining agreement or simply CBA. When a contract is made through collusion between management and labor representatives having terms detrimental to union workers, it is called, sweetheart contract.

Or shut-up contract

At MWSS, it is called spreading the sunshine as exemplified by an act of extreme kindness of its management in extending car loans to its drivers to remind all 94 M of us that there’s no sweetheart contract between MWSS and its employees.

If the drivers could get the loans they would all appear like management executives. According to critics, this arrangement is only a form of “shut-up or shut-off contract” so the Senate won’t feel ingit to protect the government.

Obscene?

Sen. Franklin Drilon called these benefits “excessive and obscene,” and urged President Noynoy to immediately stop all payments.

What does MWSS do to deserve 33 types of bonuses (according to a late revelation of CoA) and other benefits?

Just waiting

Well, it waits and waits and gets its income, mainly consisting of concession fees entrusted to it by Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services, Inc., that divided their customers into two zones – East and West. But MWSS still has unpaid obligations after paying R5.4 M and R4.37 M to two of its top officials.

To this date, most of us nationwide don’t understand why people at MWSS get paid handsomely for sitting and waiting on the side.

Two meetings in one day

Board members, according to Sen. Drilon, developed the habit of holding two board meetings in one day “so each member would receive two per diems in less than 24 hours.” The meetings took place on April 28 and July 27, 2009. One member’s per diem allowance amounted to a total of R994,000 in 2009.

Reporting a crime?

Without the Senate probers, all these CoA reports would be consigned to dead files, failing the constitutional mandate of “preventing and disallowing” highly questionable and scandalous disbursements if not thoroughly illegal and “obscene.”

Probing a psychopath

The hostage-taker was a decorated cop with long service to his credit. Then he suddenly turned into a rogue rookie, was suspended, and faced possible dismissal or criminal charges.

In some Hollywood movies, viewers might have seen cases akin to the hostage-taking drama at Quirino Grandstand. And the hostage-taker or bad man is called a psychopath, generally defined as a person having a character disorder distinguished by amoral or anti-social behavior without feelings of remorse.

The probers are examining questions of fact as shown during the bloodbath and the officers/officials for failing to prevent the death of eight Chinese tourists from Hong Kong where 250,000 Filipinos find a safe haven of employment.

The full picture

The probers need a whole picture and to complete it, they might ask competent psychologists and psychiatrists to give them even a partial view of the man’s mind/character that led him to kill eight innocent foreign tourists who were visiting Fort Santiago, a famous destination even for Filipino visitors from the provinces.

Mouse trap for visitors

Let’s all pray the tragedy will not be repeated and turn RP into a kind of mouse trap for foreign visitors. It can destroy our national economy, not just tourism as one of our various sources of income. It’s hard to quantify all the losses RP has suffered since the Luneta tragedy and harder still is to count the effects of our black image before the whole world. Thanks to TV technology, the progress of the hostage taking was seen live all over the world via CNN, BBC, Fox News, and other global news networks.

Full of holes?

Let’s give the whole world the complete picture, not just the “bang-bang” version like counting the holes on bus windows, empty shells on the bus floor, or shells from arms euphemistically called friendly fire (accidental or deliberate). Let’s put some science to a strictly “police blotter” to convince the whole world that law enforcement in RP is not tainted with barbaric acts, that the conclusions on the incident will benefit law enforcers for years.

Joseph Lim writes us

Reader Lim: Lots of things badly need to be regulated like the PU buses, jeepneys, tricycles, taxis, calesas, not to mention coastwise shipping in stormy months that claim hundreds of lives without fail in a five-year period. We tend to see business as usual after a tragedy until another tragic event befalls the country. Other countries take life seriously as one highway constable would say “One death is too many.” (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).