Let human dignity be truly respected

Some job order employees in Talisay City are complaining that the BIR has not issued them tax identification numbers because the revenue agency does not have them on record. Having worked for more than a year already, they are supposed to be on record because they have already accomplished forms and submitted these to the personnel office of the city, which in turn should have submitted these to the BIR.

But there could be a bigger issue involved here than just the mere absence of records and non-issuance of TINs, which is attributable to possible misplacement. If misplaced, the JOs can simply fill up forms again and have the Talisay City personnel office make another submission to the BIR. The bigger possible issue here is that which has bugged JOs all over the country – the refusal of their government to recognize them for their work.

In previous pronouncements, the government, through the Commission on Audit, has declared JOs as non-employees, or people who do not enjoy employer-employee relationships with government and therefore cannot be given bonuses and incentives the way other employees of government do. If there is one single act of cruelty by this government to a particular sector of the population, it is this.

JOs, admittedly, are political hires. But that does not mean they do not do real work for the government. In fact, many of them, working as nurses, midwives, janitors and garbage collectors perform very important and crucial jobs for local governments, jobs that in their absences may very well cause the collapse of basic services in many places.

There are many government programs and campaigns that have met tremendous success because of the involvement of JOs. One example was the Ligtas Tigdas program of the health department. JOs formed the backbone of that program because the DOH did not have enough personnel to carry it out on such a massive scale nationwide. And yet, the JOs cannot be given any bonuses because their government does not consider them to exist. They do not enjoy an employer-employee relationship, they are told.

So while many officials and employees in government work in the comfort of their airconditioned offices, doing jobs for which they seldom extend even a minute past 5 p.m., and for which they get to enjoy all sorts of bonuses and incentives, the poor JOs who do all the dirty work to deliver their government's basic services, the JOs are not given even the dignity of being recognized as real people, as real employees. Many of them do not even get paid the minimum wage.

If there are any congressmen out there with a basic sense of humanity, it is not too late to craft legislation that would recognize JOs not for what the name JO suggests but for the real work that they render. Let this be a country of honest wages paid for honest work. Let this be a country that recognizes and values the dignity of each person who contributes to the well-being of society in whatever capacity.