Workers group slam billionaire app owner running as partylist nominee

 

The workers group Partido Manggagawa (PM) slammed the owner of the platform app Angkas who is running as the first nominee of the Ang Kasangga partylist. “How can a billionaire like George Royeca represent ordinary app riders? This is another Mikey Arroyo, son of then President Gloria Arroyo, who ran as nominee of a fake security guards partylist group. Royeca is a poster boy for the undermining of the partylist system as a reform measure,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

 

She added that riders have been misclassified as freelancers by platforms and as a result have been denied the protection of labor standards and social security. “Riders have been organizing against abuses by platforms such as arbitrary cuts in pay. How can Royeca speak and fight for riders’ rights and welfare when he owns the app?,” Miranda averred.

 

According to the COMELEC, 73 partylist groups have filed their certificates of nomination and acceptance. But more are expected as 170 partylist groups have been accredited by the COMELEC.

 

“The Constitution provides for the partylist system as a mechanism for representation of marginalized groups such as workers who traditionally have been excluded from Congress as a result of elite domination of politics. Unfortunately, fake partylist groups, like Ang Kasangga of the Angkas CEO, have provided a backdoor for trapos and capitalists to enter the House of Representative. They have squeezed out legitimate partylist organizations truly representing workers and other basic sectors,” Miranda explained.

 

Ang Kasangga first ran in 2010 ostensibly as a partylist of small entrepreneurs but the COMELEC disqualified its first two nominees—a businessman and a former mayor—for not belonging to a marginalized group. In the same election, Mikey Arroyo won as security guards partylist representative.

 

PM was among the second batch of partylist groups which successfully put leaders of marginalized groups into the House of Representatives. Rene Magtubo, a factory worker and union president, sat as PM partylist representative for two terms until 2007.

Miranda called on app riders to reject Ang Kasangga and instead vote for partylist groups which truly represent workers and other underrepresented groups. 

October 7, 2024

‘Baguhin ang Labor Code Hindi ang Konstitusyon’: Comrades remember Ka Popoy Lagman amid ‘tumultuous’ time

 

Filemon “Ka Popoy” Lagman was assassinated inside the University of the Philippines Diliman campus 23 years ago today. Nobody claimed responsibility for his murder, but his comrades in the labor movement do not rule out state involvement by many means, as the revolutionary labor leader played a key role in mass mobilizations during important social issues of his time, including charter change.

 

Partido Manggagawa (PM) Chair Renato Magtubo, a union president and a partylist representative then, remembers Ka Popoy as someone who adapts to the changing political landscape without losing his revolutionary commitment.

 

He cited as an example that Lagman popularized the slogan ‘Rebolusyon Hindi Eleksyon’ in anticipation of the transition of power from Cory Aquino to Fidel Ramos during the 1992 elections, as well as the ‘Resign All’ call during the anti-Erap struggle, as he deemed that a Gloria Arroyo takeover of power won’t change anything, which proved prescient.

 

At the height of Edsa Dos people power, Lagman’s group pushed for the idea of having a caretaker government to be headed then by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, while other left groups supported Gloria Arroyo.

 

“Hindi katanggap-tanggap na ang panibagong people power ay magbunga lang ng isang Gloria. Dahil para lang nating pinalitan ang bigote ni Erap ng nunal ni Gloria,” Magtubo recalled Ka Popoy saying these words in disgust over the dire prospect of a simple regime change instead of the possibility of system change.

 

On February 6, 2001, he was shot dead while he was in the thick of preparations for the launching of Partido Manggagawa (PM). PM was founded by working class leaders on February 12, 2001, the same day Ka Popoy was laid to rest through a massive funeral march from UP to Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina.

 

“Kung nabubuhay lang si Ka Popoy ngayon, malamang ibabalik niya ulit ang kanyang naunang paninindigan noon laban sa charter change na ‘Baguhin ang Labor Code, Hindi ang Konstitusyon,’” Magtubo explained. At that time, labor groups were pushing for ‘CBA ng Uri’ as they find in the Labor Code many provisions that prohibit the free exercise of labor rights, including the freedom to organize and to strike as provided under the Constitution.

 

Today PM pursues a similar line, “Chicha hindi Chacha”, as it finds the motives behind the new push for charter change remain to be the same—dynastic lust for power and service to foreign capital—that runs counter to workers’ most urgent concerns on high prices, low wages, unemployment, and other demands for economic relief.

 

Members of PM vowed to continue seeking justice for Ka Popoy while pursuing what they believe is his legacy as a working-class hero—the struggle for the emancipation of the working class.

06 February 2024

Labor group slams Drew Olivar of “Pepedederalismo” for cyber libel

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today slammed for cyber libel the blogger Drew Olivar who recently hit the news for the controversial “Pepedederalismo” video together with PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson.

Olivar, in a Facebook post last September 30, 2017 on his “Drew Olivar Blog” accused Ver Estorosas, a PM leader, of absconding after allegedly receiving P8 million to mobilize people for a September 21, 2017 in Luneta. A picture of Estorosas in a rally was maliciously entitled “WANTED” in bold letters in Olivar’s blog post.

“Blabber blogger Drew Olivar is not just an indecent promoter of Pepedederalismo in cahoots with Mocha Uson but is also a thief of images for the profitable production and distribution of fake news. Ver Estorosas, as chairman of the PM Bulacan chapter, is not a fugitive but on the contrary active in leading actions of urban poor for their housing demands and NutriAsia workers for their job security,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that the group is consulting with lawyers for the appropriate course of action to defend the rights of Estorosas and stop Olivar from peddling libelous posts.

Magtubo insisted that “Olivar’s accusation is an outright lie and a figment of his imagination. He stole the photo from a rally of housing applicants in NHA Bulacan led by PM that was covered by mainstream media such as CNN Philippines and Rappler. PM was not even a participant to the September 21, 2017 rally in Luneta that was called by the Movement Against Tyranny.”

Olivar’s libelous post was brought to the attention of PM by members of the workers association BPO Shield (formerly Inter-Call Center Association of Workers) who dug into Olivar’s account after the “Pepedederalismo” video went viral.

“The Pepedederalismo video is a waste of taxpayers’ money that was squeezed from the people through TRAIN. We vow to mobilize workers and the poor against the charter change campaign of the Duterte administration. The shift to federalism is a scheme to perpetuate Duterte and trapos like Gloria Arroyo in power. The answer to mass poverty and social inequality is system change not charter change. Chicha hindi chacha!,” argued Magtubo.

“We warn Olivar against stealing more photos of rallies for his business of peddling fake news,” Magtubo cautioned as PM today held a mobilization of workers at the Senate in time for the sponsorship speech by Sen. Joel Villanueva of the security of tenure bill.

August 7, 2018

SONA2018: Boring speech compared to action-drama of House coup

PRRD’s SONA 2018 was boring despite the direction of romcom queen Joyce Bernal and compared to the action-drama of the House coup. Even the spectators inside the Batasan were not as excited as before when PRRD’s SONA was interrupted by standing ovations and vigorous clapping.

We shed no tears for the hour-long delay in the SONA. The House intramurals expose that the old rotten politics is alive and kicking under PRRD despite his repeated promises of change. Bulok, bulok, bulok sa halip na build, build, build.

The power play in the House of Representatives, the drop in PRRD’s satisfaction ratings and the massive United People’s SONA rally took the thunder out of the speech.

There was nothing new in the SONA 2018. PRRD obviously feels the pressure of the workers’ demand against endo but still refuses to heed the demand to decisively end it. He was less than honest on endo. The 300,000 workers allegedly regularized have either been terminated as companies appeal the DOLE compliance order or have merely been made regular employees of agencies. He had the power to promulgate an executive order that made direct hiring the norm in employment relations but instead he signed a lame EO 51. He asked Congress to a law to end contractualization but he still has not certified the Security of Tenure bill as urgent.

PRRD was silent on the workers demand for a wage increase and his promise to end wage regionalization or “provincial rates” in his own words. On the other hand, he was adamant in supporting the TRAIN law that has eroded workers’ wages as inflation continues to worsen. And he has called for passage of regressive TRAIN 2 that will lower corporate taxes.

Workers and the poor are suffering under PRRD. Besides endo and inflation, workers communities are ravaged by the bloody war on drugs and the wanton arrest of tambays. Which will be relentless as PRRD has insisted in SONA 2018. Human lives are protected and upheld by human rights despite PRRD’s rhetoric. The more than 12,000 most poor that have been killed in the war on drugs unequivocally reveals that human lives are lost when human rights is disparaged.

23 July 2018