Ex-station manager files complaint against RMN management
The former Radio Mo Nationwide (RMN) station manager in Davao has filed a complaint before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) against network executives for his allegedly illegal dismissal. RMN sacked three media workers last September including former dxDC manager Mario Maximo Solis.
Solis, who was also a dxDC commentator, filed the complaint against RMN president and chief executive officer Eric Canoy, vice president for operations Carlos Canoy, assistant vice president for operations Rey Bayoging, and vice president for finance Ruben de Gracia.
Filed last Sept. 23, the complaint is pending before the NLRC Regional Arbitration Branch 11. Meanwhile, the NLRC has set two dates, Oct. 26 and Nov. 3, for the mediation hearings.
RMN management suspended Solis before dismissing him last Sept. 6. Ten days after, on Sept. 16, dxDC program manager Jessie Casalda and news manager Elgin Damasco were also terminated. In an interview with the  Philippine Daily Inquirer Mindanao bureau, Solis said Casalda and Damasco’s dismissal was part of management’s harassing him and  other RMN media workers.
In the same report, Solis said that he refused to obey an order from a top network official to criticize a leading presidential candidate in favor of then candidate Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party. Villar, he said, bought millions of pesos worth of advertising time in the network during the elections.
Casalda replaced Solis in his program “Straight to the Point”. But his discussing the labor disputes in RMN over the program last Sept. 11  supposedly irked the management. Casalda discussed Solis’ supposedly illegal termination and the management’s alleged harassment of the station’s employees union. Management also dismissed Damasco after he aired  reports on the union’s response to the terminations.
Casalda and Damasco had served for six years in RMN, but the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) reported that they would receive only three years’ worth of their accumulated salaries. NUJP also reported that on the day of their removal, a policeman in plainclothes came to the radio station  to secure the place.
According to Inquirer columnist Carlos Zarate, during his 12-year stay in RMN Davao, Solis lobbied management for employee salaries higher than the prescribed minimum wage. He also foiled an attempt to lay off provincial reporters.
Solis was also responsible for the station’s pro-people programming. Said Zarate. Its “progressive” programming format under Solis’ watch, together with its opposition to former President Gloria Arroyo’s Proclamation 1017 and the killing of Davao teacher Rebelyn Pitao subjected the station to branding as “mouthpiece of the Left”. But this was said to be responsible for the station’s surge in ratings and increase in profits. Station dxDC was  number one among local stations in Davao when Solis was fired.
In a statement, NUJP expressed concern over the sacking of Solis, Casalda and Damasco.  “[The management’s] blatant attack on the rights of media workers who delivered profits for the company is condemnable. The likes of media establishment owners like Canoy who brazenly shows no respect to the dignity of the working press, and press freedom essentially, deserves utmost denunciation,” NUJP said.
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