"A retraction is a public statement made about an earlier statement that withdraws, cancels, refutes, or reverses the original statement or ceases and desists from publishing the original statement"
After days
of careful thinking on the possibility of getting my leave pay or not from CF
Sharp. Out of my sister's request , I went ahead reluctantly in going to CF
Sharp to get my leave pay. Upon much thinking I decided to plan it very
carefully as I do not know the full extent of CF Sharps wrath and persecution
against it's rogue employee's like me, and the result was that I had chosen to
go to Friday at about after noon break timing for the fact that most high
executives are still "resting" and are lazy enough to return back for
work - Friday because it turns out that Saturday was a Philippine non-working
holiday, perfect timing for me.
On my way
to Cf Sharp - I had a lot of thoughts that maybe this was a bad idea to even go
and show up my face to Cf Sharp at all, and that getting my leave pay is a low
priority to begin with.
When I
arrived , I tried to go directly to the accounting department thinking that
somehow they will not recognize me and that I can get my money Scott-free.
Unfortunately the whole process of getting the leave pay requires me to show my
face up to the admin. At first I thought it was unsuspecting given that I was
told to proceed on a different building to report and that the person whom I
would be reporting was different from the person I met when I was departing.
Everything
was going find and I was unsuspecting - until a few moments later when
"lizel" phone in something over and somehow I got a feeling that CF
Sharp management mention to her that I'm the person they were looking for.
Just came
in like a bomb when "lizel" mentioned and asked what was my ulterior
motive in "posting" against CF Sharp in a face book groups (Tinig ng
Marino). Quickly I jumped into my reflexes and remembered what my old friend
"palomas" mentioned that I should tell.
To escape
scrutiny, I just excused myself that I was not on my "right mind" at
that time and I was too grief stricken at that time when I posted that, I even
added for effect that pressures on work plus the death of my parents was enough
for me to be "mentally unstable" at that time. Fortunately for me
that excuse of "Post traumatic stress" and "grief stricken"
was well received and they did actually bought that excuse. According to
"lizel" , there is no longer for me to be bought in front of the CF
management to face judgement and that the only thing I have to do is write down
a "retraction statement" , that all the things I posted on face book
was pure lies and was malicious in nature (even though it was a fact) and
appeal to the mercy and kindness of the CF management , so that blacklisting
will be avoided.
To simply
put even if my reasons were a fact, I was being coerced by the CF Sharp
management. Honestly it was very depriving to retract all my statements knowing
on what I was saying was true but for the sake of saving my own skin, I had to
do it, I was a total fool to be even writing that in the first place and that
there is no guarantee that they will even hold on their end of not
"blacklisting" .
Anyway If I
did not wrote a retraction statement and plea for mercy, surely I would face
judgement right infront of the higher command of CF sharp and have already
known that it will not end well for me plus they will not give me my leave pay
at all. So I was in a tight spot at that time.
When I got
home , I told my sister (who was a law student) about my predicament and what
had happened. Turns out that what CF Sharp did to me was actually illegal in
labour law. (aside from being morally and ethically illegal as well) , the
writing and signing of a "retraction letter" , the coercion , even
the judgement right in front of CF Sharp Management and Higher command - all of
it, was an illegal and unethical conduct against an employee. My sister added
that it was very wrong of them to do such a thing and that they are fortunate
that I don’t have a lawyer with me at that time or else they will be having
more trouble for their coercion and unethical conduct. As far as she knows this
so called retraction letter is illegal especially if you're under coercion.
Obviously
most filipino sailors are ignorant about this , and if not only a little few
knew about this. In fact I myself do not know that it was illegal that for an
employer (CF Sharp in my case) to be doing and forcing people to write and sign
a retraction letter, along with coercion, if CHR (commission on human rights)
would even know about this then they're in for a big trouble. Anyway like I
said , ignorance and suppression of free though plagues this Philippine
maritime community, and that as a fact even Filipino labour unions like united
Filipino seafarers lead by the mafia leader nelson p. ramirez, patronizes this
kind of corrupt and repressive system, instead of protecting - the workers
union here in the Philippines is the one who punishes any seafarer that would
go "rogue" against his employer .
It already been a culture here in this so called maritime industry to
have a draconian practice., to the point that nobody even notices that there is
something wrong and that shipping agencies are too power drunk
