Group condemns arrest of 10 members on the way to SONA

 

Ten members of the Bulacan chapter of the militant group Partido Manggagawa (PM) and the driver of the vehicle they were using were detained and stopped from proceeding to the protest rally on the occasion of the last State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte.

 

“We condemn the illegal detention of our members and the violation of the right to peaceful assembly. We call for their immediate release. On Duterte’s last year in power, the pandemic of human rights violations continue even as the administration’s covid response is an epic fail,” stated Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

 

The PM Bulacan group was on the way to the SONA rally but was stopped at a checkpoint around 8:30am. When the police saw banners and placards, the group was informed that they were in violation of "ELCAC and social distancing."

 

“We were all wearing masks and face shields. And the van was big enough for the ten of us to be social distancing inside,” explained Ver Estorosas, PM Bulacan chair and leader of the group. The group is still detained at the Hillcrest Caloocan sub-station 8 "pending investigation."

 

PM mobilized factory workers, urban poor and community youth to the SONA rally held at the Commission on Human Rights grounds. “We demand TABAKK or Trabaho, Ayuda, Bakuna, Karapatan at Kasarinlan. This set of demands correspond to the recent Pulse Asia survey in which jobs, the economy, inflation, vaccination and the West Philippine are what Filipinos want to hear of the SONA. But we have no illusions that Duterte will heed these grievances as what he is concerned now is the continuation of his regime and avoiding incarceration for the crimes committed under his bloody regime,” Miranda insisted.

 

Yesterday, PM joined the group Movement Against Terror Law in unfurling a giant streamer emblazoned with the slogan “Goodbye Duterte” along Commonwealth Avenue.

Photos of the PM Bulacan group can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10159214841459323

 

July 26, 2021

PM holds “SOtaposNA” actions to highlight plight of workers at local level

 

Localized online and offline protest activities were conducted Saturday afternoon by chapters of Partido Manggagawa (PM) in different parts of the country, two days before President Duterte delivers his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

Areas that held local online protest activities include Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, and Tagum City.

According to Judy Miranda, PM Secretary-General, this is to highlight the plight of workers and poor communities who suffered the most under Duterte’s deficient and repressive style of governance.

“Ang ating mga komunidad ay hindi gaanong napapansin sa bangayan ng pulitika sa itaas, samantalang sila ang tunay na nakakaranas ng kahirapan at saksi sa nagaganap na karahasan at patayan sa buong bansa. Nasa komunidad ang totoong SONA,” declared Miranda.

One of the issues to highlight is the unresolved killings of PM organizers. Dennis Sequena, PM leader in Cavite, was shot dead by unknown assailants in June 2019 while giving a lecture on basic trade unionism among ecozone workers. PM organizer Orlando Abangan was killed in Talisay City, Cebu in September 2016, at the height of Duterte’s drug war. It is also in Cebu where a peaceful and legitimate protest of retrenched MEPZ workers was met by arrests and detention as in the case of the arrest of “Cebu 5” on November 30 last year.  

Other unresolved killings of PM organizers were that of Victoriano Embang (2012) and Rolando Pango (2014) in the island of Negros. These killings, the group said, though they happened during the past administration, remains an agenda of justice that the present administration has the duty to resolve.

Miranda said, “unresolved and unrelenting spate of killings and intensifying trade union repression is a marked failure of the Duterte administration, notwithstanding his epic fail on the issue of endo or contractualization, wage hike, and its poor pandemic response.”

On SONA day, PM members with their “ENDO30” props will be joining the “Despedida” rally led by the Movement against the Anti-Terrorism Act (MATA) at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) grounds.

PM will also be part of the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition Women’s Committee morning contingent who will submit their findings and recommendations to the CHR on the impact of COVID-19 protocols on human rights and labor rights.

24 July 2021

Women’s Month celebration ruined by Duterte’s dirty hands

Aside from the killings of trade unionists and activists, the country’s celebration of Women’s Month is ruined by Duterte’s dirty hands, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

“Definitely, that dirty act comes from a sexist mind,” declared PM Secretary General Judy Miranda.

Miranda insists that President Rodrigo Duterte’s act constituted sexual harassment of their kasambahay as the video clearly showed he was in the act of touching her. He was unsuccessful only because she stepped back just in time to avoid the contact.

PM likewise condemns Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s defense of the president saying it was just a joke, and that she’s been with the family since young and is used to these sorts of jokes from him.

“Time and again, we have deplored the President for his sexism extending to misogyny for degrading women in the way he speaks and acts. This is another similar incident that we cannot just disregard the way Roque wants everyone to do,” explained Miranda.

The fact that the video was uploaded without regard to the sexual harassment act, with such an act done right on the face of her wife, and so with the spokesperson justifying the harassment, are totally unacceptable in a society that claims to respect and guarantee women’s rights.

The group said it’s a double whammy against women, especially among working women represented by the president’s kasambahay, who are facing so much difficulties during this pandemic because of government neglect and incompetence. 

March 30, 2021