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The owner of a radio station in Cagayan De Oro City earned criticism after dismissing an employee and two veteran journalists because of a feud over lechon (a roast pig).
According to Herbie Gomez of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, the lechon was delivered to the office of dxRU Radyo Ultra on the early afternoon of Aug 29, a day after the city’s celebration of the Feast of Saint Augustine.
The son of Mayor Oscar Moreno sent the lechon as thanks for the station’s coverage of a triathlon event that he headed.
Tired from the day’s work, the hungry employees finished the lechon in no time.
Gomez said that the personnel then received a call ordering them to bring the roast over to the house of station president and owner Maria Clarisa Gualberto-Sua.
“Later, the owner’s brother called and said, ‘Where the lechon? Send it over to house because we’re going to eat it for dinner.’ The technician who took the call got rattled. He said, ‘Sir, we ate it,'” Gomez narrated.
Thus, employees raised money to buy another lechon but it was delivered to the Sua’s home past dinnertime, angering the station manager.
A letter of explanation was later offered by a production manager but it was not enough to soothe the “ballistic” Sua.
“In the letter, the production manager pointed out that we bought another lechon to replace what we had eaten. He even quoted Bible verses, pertaining to the hungry people who must be fed. This, apparently, just made the owner mad,” Gomez said.
On September 2, Sua fired outspoken radio personnel Ernie Balagot and reporters Wenefredo Dellava and Edgar Navarro.
Balagot accepted the quit claim while the journalists sought the help of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) and filed a complaint for illegal dismissal.
Gomez said that local media members have banded together in support of Dellava and Navarro.
He added that Sua has insufficient grounds to use Labor Code provisions on serious misconduct, gross and habitual neglect of duty, fraud and willful breach of trust, and commission of a crime in dismissing her employees.
Photo: WikiCommons
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
