Cebu Church leaders seek to avert strike

CHURCH leaders in the central Philippine city of Cebu are scrambling to find ways to avert a strike that is threatening to trigger a power crisis.

An earlier call by some 30 Catholic priests for mediation between the union and management of the Visayas Electric Company (VECO), the biggest distributor of electricity to households in Metro Cebu, was ignored.

A strike would threaten the power supply in the country’s second-largest center after Metro Manila.

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal told reporters that he supports the move of Visayas-based priests to mediate. However, he warned that it was not the practice in the archdiocese to intervene in a dispute or conflict without being invited to do so.

“We are not imposing ourselves,” Vidal said before attending the monthly clergy recollection at the Betania Retreat House.

“If a strike erupts and the electric supply of consumers is affected, blame the VECO management, not the union of the workers of VECO,” the newly-formed Cebu Consumers Electric Alliance told ucanews.com.

More at ucanews.com