Friday, July 12, 2019

Labor group to Probinsyano rep: Resign or be axed



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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