Retirees of the Philippine National Bank (PNB) in Negros Occidental joined a nationwide protest Tuesday, November 7, to demand payment of their benefits as ruled by the Supreme Court, which they have been “deprived of since the bank’s privatization almost two decades ago”.
There were about 70 of the 300 retirees in Negros Occidental clad in black who gathered in front of the PNB branch at Araneta Street in Bacolod City to air their grievances, despite the rain.
The protestors carried streamers calling for the bank to end its “delaying tactics”.
They are part of about 8,500 PNB retirees nationwide who have not been paid because of years of delaying tactics by the bank’s management, Ed Pama, a spokesman of the retirees, said.
PNB was acquired by tycoon Lucio Tan after it was privatized by the government in 1989. After its merger with the Tan-owned Allied Bank on February 9, 2013, PNB became the fifth largest private domestic bank in the country.
Retiree Eden Sombito said they hope their simultaneous nationwide protest will touch the hearts of PNB’s top management.
“We are hoping their hearts will soften and they will have pity on us. Some of the retirees have passed away already and others are sick. We need what is due to us now na,” Sombito said.
“We need it now because this has long been overdue despite a Supreme Court ruling. They should have pity on us because we rendered services to PNB for so many years,” she said.
“PNB is really capable of paying us, it’s one of the biggest commercial banks now. If they are saying their employees are their assets why don’t they pay what is due us,” Pama said.
“It was during Lucio Tan’s take over that our benefits were lost,” he said.
Pama said they were staging the protest because the Supreme Court this year affirmed Court of Appeals and Pasay Regional Trial Court decisions that said that PNB should pay their cost of living allowance (COLA) and special amelioration allowance (SAA).
However, until now no payment has been made, Pama said.
PNB has been ordered to pay the back pay in the COLA and SAA equivalent to 40 percent and 10 percent respectively of the basic salaries of all employees who were in the service from July 1, 1989 to May 26, 1996, he said.
The SC castigated PNB for employing delays, unnecessary pleadings and asking for several postponements, the protestors pointed out.
The retirees are also asking for PNB’s payment of the following:
*”Illegal” deduction their Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) gratuity pay from their separation/retirement pay. The SC declared that the act of PNB of deducting gratuity pay from separation pay should be countenanced;
*Iniquitous separation/retirement pay based on basic salaries before and after PNB’s privatization instead of last basic salaries; and
*Dissolution of the employees’ provident fund. After Tan and his group took over the ownership and management of PNB, they dissolved the provident fund being enjoyed by the employees for many years.
They are also asking GSIS to pay their retirement benefits and pension based on total years of government service.
GSIS should comply with the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, they said.
They are proposing legislation granting lifetime pension to former PNB employees who were forced to receive gratuity pay arising from the bank’s privatization.
Instead of a one-time gratuity for their 20-years of government service, PNB employees who received gratuity pay arising from PNB’s privatization should be granted lifetime pensions just like government employees who are receiving monthly pensions after rendering at least 15 years of government service, they said.
PNB could not be reached for comment.*