The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM)
demanded that Ang Probinsyano partylist representative Alfred de los Santos resign
as congressman if he is truly sorry for punching a waiter in Legazpi, Albay. “If
de los Santos won’t voluntarily resign then he must be axed by his partylist
group or the House Ethics Committee,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
He added that “A student who punches his
peer is liable to be expelled from school. A worker who hits a customer will
definitely be terminated, and will probably be arrested and jailed. But de los
Santos is still walking free and engaging in verbal acrobatics to assuage the public
outrage.”
“A partylist rep should bravely stand up
for labor and take the government to task for the country being named as among
the 10 worst countries for workers. Instead we have the sad spectacle of Ang
Probinsyano rep de los Santos caught punching an ordinary worker,” Magtubo
averred.
He furthered that “The partylist system
has been well and truly been bastardized. On the one hand, we have a partylist
rep who attacks and abuses a lowly worker. On the other hand, the richest House
representative is a partylist congressman.” Magtubo was a factory worker when
he was a pioneer partylist rep back in 1998.
“Obviously the partylist system has to
be overhauled if it is to be true to the Constitutional mandate that it be a
mechanism to give representation and voice to the marginalized. Unfortunately
it is too much to ask of the present Congress which is packed by trapos to
reform the broken partylist and electoral system,” Magtubo ended.
July 12, 2019
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