The National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines are proposing to the Negros Occidental provincial government an allocation of 50 percent of its 20 percent Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Board Member Nehemias de la Cruz, who is also the national chairman of NACUSIP and its affiliated organizations, said Saturday that it will be used to form the Negros Corporation.

The province, the cities and the municipalities have their 20 percent PDAF and the union is proposing the creation of a Negros Corporation where 50 percent of all PDAF will be put together as capital for the creation of the corporation, he said.

An estimated, P2.5 billion will be collected even if only half of the PDAFs in all the cities and towns, including the province, will be put together in preparation for 2015 when there will be zero tariff on sugar, de la Cruz said.

The corporation will be managed by Negrenses who have the expertise to run businesses and have the managerial skills to invest for the development of the province, he said.

The Negros Corporation will also cater to the needs of farmers, workers, and the labor sector in job generation. It will be a combination of the workers' and peasants' working agenda to develop Negros, de la Cruz said.

This will provide work and income to many job seekers and the landscape of Negros will be different, he said.

He also encouraged all labor organizations to be more vigilant and participative in what is happening in the country to prepare for various problems faced by the labor movement.

Other affiliated organizations with TUCP are the International Trade Union, Philippine Agricultural, Commercial, and Industrial Workers Union, Congress of Independent Organizations, and the Fraternal Labor Organization.

De la Cruz was elected the national chairman of NACUSIP during the annual joint national conventions of NACUSIP and its affiliated organizations at Sweet Captel in Bacolod City Saturday.

"There should be someone at the top who will guide and act as consultant and he fits the position because he was a labor leader before, and he has the capacity to lead," Zoilo de la Cruz, NACUSIP president and treasurer of TUCP, said.*LTG

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