
By JUSTIN UMALI
Bulatlat.com
CABUYAO CITY, Laguna – At least ten security guards posted for duty along the Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEX) spent last Christmas with no wages.
Richard Pacleb has been assigned as a security guard at CLLEX for the past six months now. He is the breadwinner, providing for his wife and two-month old baby. He rides his motorcycle every day from their home in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija to his CLLEX post in Zaragoza where he works a 12-hour shift. He earns P450 ($8) per day.
Pacleb is one of the 10 security guards who filed a complaint against their agency Manila’s Best Premium Security over issues with wages and other unfair labor practices. According to them, Manila’s Best did not pay them throughout December while also promising to raise their wages.
Attempts to raise the issue with management were met with a lukewarm response. On January 7, Manila’s Best finally paid the guards for work done from December 1 to 15, 2024. After multiple demands from the guards to release the wages for December 16-31, 2024, the agency relented and agreed to release P2,000 ($34) as a “cash advance.”
“Christmas was very hard on us,” Pacleb said in an interview with Bulatlat. “Taking care of a baby with no income is almost impossible.” According to him, his daily expenses like food expenses and gasoline for his motorcycle are barely covered by his daily wage. “I spend anywhere from P150-200 ($2) on gas alone,” he says.
To make ends meet, Pacleb said that he would borrow money from friends and family members. He now worries about being unable to meet his family’s needs which include the monthly bills. “We’ve been unable to pay for electricity for four months now,” he said.
According to the Philippine Association of Detective and Protective Agency Operators (PADPAO), the private security industry raked in P8.5 billion ($144,960) in 2022, with over 700,000 Filipinos employed as armed guards or consultants. According to Pacleb, Manila’s Best is a large security agency employing “at least 500” security guards across multiple contracts.
Despite this, the 10 guards in CLLEX earn below the P525 ($9) daily minimum wage in Nueva Ecija. Five of them are unlicensed and are not registered with Social Security Systems, PhilHealth, and Pag-ibig.
Despite this, they said that Manila’s Best takes P765 ($13) from their monthly wages as “contributions” to these agencies. Upon checking, however, they found out that their contributions are not recorded.
The guards also said that their agency does not give overtime pay, holiday pay, or any of the other benefits stated in the Labor Code of the Philippines.
Manila’s Best has yet to officially respond to the guards’ complaint. According to Richard Dayao, another security guard also posted in CLLEX, they filed a complaint with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and were supposed to have a hearing last January 13. No representative from Manila’s Best appeared before DOLE and the hearing had to be rescheduled on January 20.
Unofficially, representatives from the agency have been in contact with the 10 security guards. Dayao said that the representatives were “angry at them” for filing a complaint. “They are the ones who are taking from us, and they are angry? If anybody’s angry, it should be us,” he said.
Pacleb, Dayao, and the other guards are committed to “seeing the case through.” Dayao said that the complaint is not just a matter of stolen wages but a matter of rights.
“We have to fight for our rights,” he said. “Or else, people will just continue to trample on us like we are nothing.” (AMU, DAA, RVO)