Several
thousand workers marched in key cities today to commemorate Bonifacio Day, demand
a ban on contractualization and protest the hero’s burial of Marcos.
The
nationwide rallies led by the labor coalition Nagkaisa were billed as a
“National Day of Action Vs. Endo.” Partido Manggagawa (PM) together with other
labor groups rejected the so-called “win-win” solution on contractualization
and pushed for an “end endo” formula of prohibition of subcontracting of
regular jobs.
“The
misnamed win-win scheme proposed by employers, and promoted by the Trade and
Labor Departments will not end endo. It is a scam that will lead to the utter
proliferation of outsourcing and contracting out of regular jobs by the
principal employers,” explained Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
Member
groups of Nagkaisa marched from Welcome Rotonda to Morayta where it held a
program. Militant workers then joined other groups for another rally around
noon at Mendiola to register labor’s condemnation of the surprise hero’s burial
for Marcos. Labor organizations later participated in the broad protest at the
People Power Monument called by the Coalition Against the Marcos Burial.
In Cebu
City, workers marched from downtown Colon to Plaza Independencia. Industrial
and sugar workers rallied at the Bacolod marker Araneta. In Davao City, workers
marched from the Freedom Park to the Bonifacio Monument.
To express
labor’s twin demands, PM highlighted the slogan “Ilibing ang kontraktwalisasyon
hindi ang kasalanan ni Marcos.” Magtubo averred that “Students have already made
their stand known. Today workers voiced out too their position on the burning
issues of our country.”
“A hero’s burial for the late dictator is
a stepping stone for the return to power of another Marcos. We can’t move on to
a future where the occupant of Malacanang is an unrepentant member of a family
that pillaged the public treasury and burdened generations with debt,” he
added.
Magtubo argued that “President Duterte
is accountable for this mockery of justice. He is in fact simply paying a debt,
probably not of gratitude. Duterte’s newfound respect for the letter of the law
in the case of Marcos’ burial contrasts with his utter disregard for due
process and human rights for most everything else, including the execution of a
bloody war on drugs.”
November 30, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment