Social protection network pushes for agenda-based ‘13 polls

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.”

Groups rally against “balik-probinsya program,” call for moratorium on demolitions

Press Release

May 16, 2011

Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino (AMP) mobilized its members for a rally led by the urban poor alliance Kilos Maralita at the HUDCC main office in Makati. Some 500 urban poor picketed the Atrium Building in Makati this morning.

“The proposed balik-probinsya program is a wrong solution to the problem. The urban poor built the cities and we are entitled to live in it,” declared Ramil Cangayao, an AMP leader.

Some 500,000 informal settlers are set to be relocated to the provinces under the balik-probinsya program proposed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). After the HUDCC rally, the protesters also proceeded to the DAR main office at the

Elliptical Road

in Quezon City to continue the rally. The groups lambasted the balik-probinsya proposal.

The groups also called on President Benigno Aquino III to sign a draft executive order that provides for a moratorium on demolitions and evictions. “The spate of violent demolitions in Metro Manila and other areas, such as the Laperal compound, reveal the need for a moratorium on evictions. During the pendency of the moratorium, government must hold an honest dialogue with the urban poor for strategic solution to the problem of housing for the poor,” explained Cangayao.

AMP is a network of urban poor organization in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon that is campaigning for a moratorium on demolitions, reforms in the housing policy and housing security of informal settlers.

PM, AMP and Kilos Maralita are involved in the consultations held by the cabinet level task force headed by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo with the mandate to formulate and recommend policy resolutions on the housing issues confronting the urban poor. An executive order for the moratorium drafted as a result of the consultations has remained unsigned by President Aquino.

Ed Casuy, leader of the Paranaque chapter of AMP, said that “We appeal to PNoy to make good on his campaign promise that he will declare a moratorium on demolitions and evictions. This is a promise that has remained unfulfilled to this day. Everyday that PNoy delays implementing a moratorium, more urban poor fall victim to illegal and violent demolitions and evictions.”

“Are vested interests with connections to key officials of PNoy blocking the draft moratorium order? Or has PNoy himself turned his back on his promise to the urban poor? The urban poor will not stop hounding PNoy in order to know the answer,” Casuy asked.

Urban poor hold human chain protest to urge PNoy on moratorium on demolitions

Press Release
January 10, 2011
Kilos Maralita

An urban poor group led a human chain and noise barrage protest this morning to call on the government to fulfill the campaign promise of President Benigno Aquino III on a comprehensive reform of the housing program for the poor and a moratorium on demolitions. The group Kilos Maralita is pushing for a three-year moratorium on demolitions, evictions and foreclosures.

Some 300 urban poor from the constituent groups of Kilos Maralita such as the North Triangle Association, LUPA and Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino (AMP) participated in the protest. The protesters linked arms in a human chain along EDSA from the corner of North Avenue to the corner of Quezon Avenue. They also held a 30-minute noise barrage by banging on pots and pans.

Teody Gacer of Kilos Maralita and leader of the North Triangle residents asserted that “It is high time that PNoy carry out his promise during the presidential campaign. We want government action on a thoroughgoing reform of socialized housing. We demand a three-year moratorium on demolitions.”

Tomorrow Kilos Maralita is going to Malacanang for a dialogue with government officials on their demand. The renewed campaign for a moratorium is in the face of reports that government is going to sign an executive order for a three-month moratorium.

“A three-month moratorium is a sick joke on the urban poor,” Gracer insisted. Representatives of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) will accompany the Kilos ng Maralita leaders in the Malacanang dialogue. CHR and NAPC have formally supported the Kilos Maralita demand for a three-year moratorium.