Yesterday, Mar. 2, mall-goers and netizens alike were in a frenzy over a hostage crisis at V-Mall at the Greenhills Shopping Center. More than 60 individuals were held hostage for around 10 hours by former security guard Archie Paray, who, in a press conference after the hostage-taking, revealed that he did this to bring to light cases of corruption of his superiors. He claimed this was what led to him being allegedly fired from his job. (Sascor Armor Security Agency [SASCOR] general manager Oscar Hernandez that Paray was put on rotation “to avoid familiarity of the guards.”)
Much has been said about whether his methods were right, or at least justifiable. Paray himself knew it was wrong, saying he knew even before he did it that he was going to die. But he wasn’t just doing it for himself, but for the other security guards who were still working and being exploited. As a Twitter user pointed out, look at the way his fellow security guard shook Paray’s hand as he let the hostages go.
The way the hostage-taking was choreographed shows this: Paray’s demands were not of money, but to organize a press conference with major media outlets in attendance. When he let go of the hostages, he grabbed a microphone to give a 20 minute speech on the unfair working conditions he and his fellow security guards face. “Sino ba kami rito? Mga gwardya lang kami,” he says at the start of his speech.
What must be taken away from yesterday’s crisis is this: workers continue to suffer, and it’s telling how detached we are by our response and how the situation has even come to this. That a man armed with weapons and explosives has to hold people hostage and incite fear, just for his voice to be heard.
If Paray’s claims are true, (Greenhills Center Management will be undergoing an investigation on the matter, reports say) it is definitely maddening how the people we entrust with our lives and safety, how the people we expect to uphold the “respect for human life” demanded of decent human beings, are not being treated with the same respect and dignity.
It’s easy for us to say that he should have just thought of other ways to solve his unemployment problem, or he should’ve just aired his grievances through proper platforms. But these come from a place of privilege. We’re not pushed to the edge like he was.
Paray’s case is not only an example of unfair working conditions, either. As a contractual laborer (Paray was under the employ of SASCOR, which deploys security guards to the shopping center), the security guard was vulnerable to exploitation, having little to no bargaining rights and security of tenure. That’s why the mall management was able to callously put him and the other guards under rotation: with the ways in which labor laws are regulated in this country, they’re virtually allowed to.
There are many workers who face the same problems—unjust work conditions, corruption and “politicking” in the workplace, insufficient compensation, even death at the worst case (for our workers on the fields, for example)—who all take different responses. Sure, a majority may just opt to “grin and bear it” so to speak, but there are others who take matters into their own hands, too.
It’s not unheard of to see workers’ strikes, rallies on the streets, walkouts, boycotts. Workers will often unionize only to see the management strike back and fire them (or force them to resign), despite the fact that all workers are allowed to unionize and that retaliating in such way is unlawful.
We’ve yet to see a mass and wide-scale change. Despite constantly promising to end “endo,” a form of contractualization that allows employers to terminate workers just short of regularization, the president himself vetoed an anti-endo bill just days before it was about to lapse into law. Is it that surprising then that a man literally goes up in arms to get his message across?
Paray will soon face criminal charges for his actions—something he was already expecting since he planned the hostage-taking. But when will employers nationwide face the repercussions of not treating their employees right?
Featured photo courtesy of Inquirer.net
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Writer: ZOFIYA ACOSTA AND PAULINE MIRANDA
