KAMP
PRESS RELEASE
08 October 2012
After an annoying week of ‘circus’ at the Commission on Elections, a network of grassroots organizations campaigning for social protection is pressing for a more empowering, agenda-based conduct of the 2013 national and local elections. In a “Caravan of Electoral Agenda” organised this morning by the Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP), a priority list of social policy agenda was presented in public as the campaign network plans to make active intervention in next year’s polls.
The list includes the agenda on:
Decent work and guaranteed employment
Universal Health Care
Humane housing and the right to the city, and
De-privatization of essential services
“Political campaigns in the past insult the intelligence of people, candidates entertain us with song and dance numbers and empty promises. Unholy alliances among parties show that winning is more important than presenting clear and coherent programs,” declared KAMP lead convenor, Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, adding that “It’s time to make our elections agenda-based.”
The KAMP caravan with some 300 representatives coming from communities of the network made its first stop at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) where workers demanded full compliance to government’s obligation to promote the workers’ rights and provide full employment to all Filipino workers.
“Yesterday was the World Day for Decent Work. The celebration was obviously empty here in the Philippines where contractual/outsourced jobs dominate the industries while more and more members of the labor force are trapped in chronic unemployment and underemployment problems,” said Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chair, Renato Magtubo. He likewise called on the government to formulate a public employment program that can offer guaranteed public jobs for the millions of unemployed.
From the labor department, KAMP members proceeded to the Comelec where they handed a letter to Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes, requesting the poll body to organize a series of national debate among the candidates on the said policy agenda. Nemenzo said the Comelec is in the best position to organize this national debate, “so that candidates can also be given a fair chance to explain their position on those particular issues.” She added that better still if the poll body can organize the same at the local level to bring it closer to the people.
Magtubo on his part explained that, “A national debate is thought-provoking and participatory, and therefore will be more empowering compared to sugar-coated political ads created by spin masters.”
From the poll body, the caravan headed toward the Department of Health office in Manila where KAMP members called for more radical reforms in the country’s health care system which they said, needs to institutionalize the principle and programs of primary health care to attend to people’s health needs at the onset, before they even reach the hospital. Nemenzo pointed out that in Cuba “hospitals are considered just a step away from the cemetery.”
The group said the KP program remains limited as the system merely converges with the government’s targeted conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, and therefore is not universal. “KAMP is pushing for a system where quality health care is accessible and available to anyone, anytime, anywhere,” explained Nemenzo, who is also the leader of WomanHealth Philippines.
The caravan’s last leg was at the National Housing Authority (NHA) where the demand for on-site/in-city housing program is being pushed by urban poor groups.
Bubuy Magahis, coordinator of Kilos Maralita said, “The present off-site relocation program denies the poor the right to the city. Cities are not only for the 1% and the middle class. The poor have the right to be with them and the State has the obligation to ensure that city spaces, including parks, are mutually shared by all its citizens whose majority in fact happens to be the poor.”
Showing posts with label KAMP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KAMP. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2012
Thursday, October 20, 2011
99% endorse PALEA resolution at NAPC sectoral assembly
PRESS RELEASE
Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay
20 October 2011
The basic sectors, the 99% of the Filipino people have spoken. Contractualization as a policy was rejected and they want President Aquino to utilize his powers to cause the reinstatement of 2,600 regular employees locked out by PAL beginning October 1, 2011.
This was the unanimous sentiment of the different sectors that gathered at the National Anti-Poverty Commission’s (NAPC) National Sectoral Assembly held from October 17-19 at different venues in Quezon City
The Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP), a coalition of different sectoral and civil society organizations campaigning for a life of dignity for all, is one of the many groups that attended the sectoral assembly. KAMP is pushing for the universalization of social protection policies such as decent housing, employment guarantees, healthcare, and other social protection measures for the poor and marginalized sectors.
KAMP coordinator Wilson Fortaleza, said a resolution, “expressing deep concern on the harmful consequence of outsourcing/contractualization schemes to the exercise of labor rights; and urging President Benigno S. Aquino III, with all his powers to intervene in labor-management disputes vital to national interest, to reinstate with full rights the 2,600 workers locked out by PAL on October 1, 2011”, was unanimously approved, first by the non-government organizations (NGO) sector and later by the women, youth and students, the elderly, and even the children sectors who gathered at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City.
A similar resolution was also approved in the formal labor sectoral assembly held at another hotel where workers in the formal, informal, and migrant sectors were gathered.
“Now that the boss had spoken loud on this particular issue of contractualization and outsourcing in PAL, the ball is now on the hands of the President. Either he is for the 99% or he is for the 1% represented by Mr. Lucio Tan,” said Fortaleza
The “We are the 99%” slogan popularized by the “
Occupy Wall St.
” protesters, added Fortaleza
Created under Republic Act 8425, the NAPC institutionalizes the government’s Social Reform Agenda (SRAs), which aim is to strengthen and invigorate the partnership between the national government and the basic sectors.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
National moratorium on demolitions needed to avoid repeat of Davao incident –labor group
PRESS RELEASE
02 July 2011
The unfortunate, violent face-off between the furious Inday (Mayor Sara Duterte) and the hapless Sheriff (Abe Andres) could have been avoided if there had been a declared national moratorium on demolitions, the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.
According to PM Secretary General Judy Ann Miranda, violent confrontations between the informal settlers and the demolition team are normal occurrence whenever an eviction or demolition order is enforced either by the court or by the government itself. And in many instances, a hapless sheriff who has no personal discretion at all to either withhold or press on with the order coming from his/her bosses, ends up getting the ire of angry residents, or in this recent case in Davao
“As a party of ordinary labourers, we cannot help but sympathize with Sheriff Abe Andres for the humiliating experience he suffered from the hands of Mayor Inday. Yet we also recognize the firm resolve of Mayor Duterte in addressing the problem of her constituents in an appropriate manner and to prevent the expected outbreak of violence,” explained Miranda.
In fact, added Miranda, “Minus the disposition for brutality, all LGU officials should have the kind of social instinct that Mayor Sara Duterte has.”
The labor group together with other groups under the Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP) had been urging the Palace since last year to declare a moratorium on demolitions, evictions and foreclosures on informal settlers while a new comprehensive housing policy is not yet in place.
“If the Masang Pinoy is really his boss, PNoy should likewise have the political will of Mayor Sara. The President in fact neither needs a fist nor a gun to stop violent demolitions but just a pen for an Executive Order declaring a moratorium,” concludes Miranda.
PM recalled that just recently also, exchange of words occurred between Makati Mayor and Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary (DILG) Jessie Robredo when violent confrontations flared up during the demolition of the Laperal compound in Guadalupe.
Several other demolition operations also ended up in violence and resulted eventually to the massive displacement for the cities’ informal settlers.
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