HINDI KAMI MULTO: Workers are the ones subsidizing the government and business

 

“Manggagawa ang totoong nagbibigay ng subsidy sa gobyerno at negosyo subalit pinakahuli sa benepisyo at serbisyo,” stated Partido Manggagawa (PM) on the eve Labor Day, countering the prevailing narrative that it is the government that provides subsidy to the poor.

 

“May iba’t-ibang klase ng limitado at patronage na ayuda, pero galing din naman sa manggagawa ang pondo sa mga ito. Kahit ang yaman ng mga korporasyon, after taxes, ay sa labor din galing. Lahat ay galing sa manggagawa, pero ghosting ang tugon ni BBM sa amin ngayong Labor Day,” PM Chair Renato Magtubo protested.

 

Magtubo explained further that as consumers, millions of workers pay regressive taxes like excise and VAT multiple times for manufactured goods and services they purchase. As metered customers of Meralco and other distribution utilities, they are made to subsidize the power bills of their poorer neighbors. As income earners, they pay personal income taxes once the exemption level is breached. And as OFWs, they remit billions of dollars for their families to spend.  

 

Labor groups are demanding for a P200 wage hike and the enactment of the national minimum wage bill, but Malacañang and business groups maintain a policy of wage restraint despite a ₱155 erosion of the minimum wage in NCR.

 

Partido Manggagawa under the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition is joining other labor groups under the National Wage Coalition tomorrow morning, for a WELGA unified march from Welcome Rotonda and España Boulevard going to Mediola. PM members will also join the nationwide protests particularly in the cities of Cebu, Bacolod, and Iloilo.

 

WELGA stands for Wage Hike Now Tungo National Living Wage, E-VAT Tanggalin Income Tax Repasuhin, Lagyan ng Buwis ang Sobrang Yaman at Kita, Gawing Abot Kaya ang Presyo, and Arestuhin Lahat ng Kurakot.

 

PM is also taking an anti-war call, saying it is the US-Israel tandem which should be held accountable for their war of aggression on Iran and its impact on the global economy.

 

Meanwhile, on the issue of corruption, PM Secretary General Judy Miranda said the fight for good governance will always be a part of labor’s advocacy, along with topmost and urgent economic concerns like wages and jobs.

 

“Ikulong ang lahat ng korap, Duterte camp man yan o Marcos. Pababain si Sara, pero pababain din ang presyo ng mga bilihin,” Miranda said. ###

Dapat parehong happy--Kapatiran

 

The Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) finds it unfair seeing the salaries of soldiers and all uniformed service personnel increasing by 15% in the next three years, while workers in the private sector were left stretching a P500 noche-buena package this holiday season.

 

“While Kapatiran is not against raising the salaries of our security personnel, leaving the private sector workers stretching out their current low wages under the same economic condition faced by soldiers’ families is simply unfair,” said Kapatiran Chair Rey Almendras.

 

He added that “Hindi man kayang gawing pantay ang sahod ng manggagawa sa sektor ng seguridad at sektor ng ekonomiya, huwag namang happy ang sa government side kahit may problema sa korapsyon, habang sad ang nasa private sector na ang kaunting wage hike ay saglit lang kinakain ng implasyon.”

 

Kapatiran has been asking for a wage increase for wage recovery of not less than P100 since 2024, both at the regional wage board levels and in Congress for a legislated wage hike.

 

Private sector workers could have been happier if alongside the Palace announcement of a pay hike for soldiers is a Presidential certification to expedite passage of pending legislated wage hike bills.

 

Inflation-adjusted wages were 19.7%-26.1% lower than the current minimum wage in November, according to the latest computations prepared by Business World. In peso terms, the current minimum wage of P695 in NCR has a real value of P546.71 only.

 

Multiplied by 22 days, a private sector worker in NCR receives P15,290 of minimum wage in a month. On the other hand, the basic salary for an entry level member of PNP is P29,668.

 

Yet both live under the same economic conditions and share the same dreams of a joyful celebration of the holiday season.

 

“Kaya naman naming pagkasyahin ang P500 na noche buena, pero ang mas sigurado kami ay DTI family lang ang happy sa diskarteng Pinoy sa larangan ng pagtitipid at pagtitiis,” Almendras concluded. 

 

PRESS RELEASE

9 December 2025

KAPATIRAN

Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa

Noise barrage and candle light protest vs return of Marcos to power

 

The groups Partido Manggagawa (PM) and Kalipunan ng Kilusang Masa (Kalipunan) which unites workers, farmers, women and students will lead a protest action this afternoon at 5:30 pm against the return of the Marcoses to power.

 

“EDSA’s epic fail is engendering a throwback to dictatorship. Since EDSA’s let-down is plain to see, memes of a Marcos golden age look like fact rather than fiction,” averred Judy Miranda, PM Secretary-General.

 

The highlight of the protest is a noise barrage and candle lighting at the People Power Monument. The riders’ group Kagulong will assemble at Mall of Asia then hold a “unity ride” to join Kalipunan.

 

“Poverty, inequality and injustice have persisted and plagued our country since 1986. True, these were a pestilence even during the Marcos dictatorship despite recent attempts to prettify the thingy called martial law. The infamous infrastructure projects of Marcos which keep popping up on social media were no more than just opportunities to rob the people while pushing generations of Filipinos deep into debt. The plunder of the national treasury and the systematic human rights violations by the state still have no parallel during the post-EDSA regimes. Abuse of power is necessarily worse under a dictatorial regime which does not have to bother with the niceties of due process, civil liberties, press freedom or a political opposition,” Miranda explained.

 

She added that “All those political—and social, we should not forget—contradictions during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship finally exploded in that historic event called the ‘people power uprising.’ While the yearning for democracy was central to EDSA, the cause of social justice—the demand of workers for rights, of peasants for land, of students for reform, among others—was no less a key impetus.”

 

“The EDSA democracy is a skeleton without flesh. The formality is there but the substance is lacking. Elections are a farce. Instead of an exercise in democracy, it is a rigodon for dynasties and warlords. Regime after regime played deaf to the cry for social justice as globalization dictated by the IMF and WTO was embraced. Cheap labor was used as a come on for foreign investors. Farmers buckled under the onslaught of cheap imports. Social services suffered as the national budget was decimated by debt outlays, a big part of which was to pay loans taken out by Marcos. With a bleak future in the country, millions of Filipinos migrated despite all the sacrifices and difficulties. To those living in the purgatory of the EDSA democracy, the hell of martial law is little comfort. No surprise then that purveyors of fake news, creative imagination and alternative facts are having a field day. EDSA’s epic fail created a vacuum that is being filled by an authoritarian throwback,” Miranda concluded.

February 25, 2022

STATEMENT ON VP LENI’S FILING OF COC

VP Leni Robredo’s final decision may have come late in the day, yet it can be a game-changer in a tightly contested presidential race. Leni may also have failed to assemble the broadest opposition to the Duterte-Marcos camp, yet she surely has earned more allies at the grassroots who come to know her better as a firm, agenda-based leader compared with those whose political train of thought is win first, lead later.

Our labor agenda does not end with Leni, but a Robredo presidency, based on her earlier commitments, opens new opportunities for workers’ continuing struggle for democracy. For now, we hold the common view that ending the bloody Duterte regime and preventing the return of the plundering Marcoses need collective effort. Yet organizing electoral resistance against authoritarianism also necessitates a platform that embodies the collective aspirations of the basic sectors, including the working class.

07 October 2021

Workers will continue fighting for democracy and human rights

Authoritarianism and liberal democracy are two distinct form of governance, yet workers under both circumstances suffer different degrees of human rights violations. Democracy and human rights, in other words, are permanent demands and agenda that workers will be fighting for in either condition of elite governance. 

We remember how workers and their trade unions were supressed during the dark days of martial law, 47 years ago today. But it is also important to recall the resistance and heroism the workers’ movement played during those turbulent years until the end of the Marcos dictatorship. Then the struggles that never stopped even under the post-martial law/post-Edsa regimes. 

Today, therefore, is also a good day to ask: When will workers stop fighting for those agenda?  

Workers did fight before because democracy was lacking and state violence was an everyday bill. We fight today because democracy was still wanting while chronic poverty and inequality remain. 

Accordingly, workers will be fighting any plan by the administration to bring back martial law or re-establish dictatorship, alongside with the campaigns for job security, living wage, freedom of association, and deeper political reforms. And we are aware of the fact that winning these agenda is more difficult under the Duterte regime where the struggle for labor and human rights are taken as rebellion initiated by state enemies. 

There are reasons to worry about the dangers faced by human rights defenders (HRDs) in this country today, including those who are involved in trade union organizing. Several trade union organizers have already been killed in EJK manner of executions. There is also an on-going red-tagging of unions being undertaken by the military nationwide, most especially in hot spot areas like EPZA’s and mining communities. Several picket lines have also been dispersed violently by combined private and state security forces in the last three years.   

Today we join the human rights community led by the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) and In Defense of Human Rights (I-Defend) in demanding #StopTheAssault against HRDs and the Filipino people. 

We condemn, in strongest terms, acts of state violence in the same way as we reject and demand the scrapping of official policies like red-tagging of trade unions and other HRDs working for the realization of a life of dignity and human rights for all.

21 September 2019

Martial law legality is more impunity – labor group

Photo from Rappler

The decision is extremely disappointing but not surprising. This is how the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) reacted to the Supreme Court verdict rendering legalities to the imposition of martial law in Mindanao. “There seems to be an established judicial pattern here. The majority justices who didn’t share the agonies of martial law victims have only seen the legality of the Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in the absence of an express law prohibiting it. In the same manner, these justices may have only seen the exclamation point in Marawi to support the President in suppressing a pocket rebellion through martial law,” stated PM Chair Renato Magtubo. The group reiterated its concern that placing the entire Mindanao under martial law may result in more human rights violations, massive dislocation of communities, and further destruction to properties and social infrastructure due to violence and prolonged military actions until the entire island is cleared of state enemies. It also warned the palace not to utilize martial law as a tool to suppress civil liberties. “Legally martial law does not suspend the free exercise of human rights, except for those who would be directly charged with the crime of rebellion or invasion. But if a culture of impunity can reign today even without martial law, how far can it go under an emboldened commander-in-chief and the police leadership who mocks and vilifies human rights to the max?,” asked PM. The death toll in Marawi is still on the rise while the destructions due to war have created a humanitarian crisis comparable to the previous wars in Mindanao. “If the picture of Marawi and the tens of thousands of bakwits who fled away from it will become the generalized condition under martial law in different parts of Mindanao, then the policy can neither be just nor beneficial to both the Muslims, Lumads and Christians in the long run,” added PM. The group, however, clarified that it is for the ultimate reign of peace and prosperity in Mindanao and that these can only be achieved through social development and political settlement of different conflicts. “The military solution was the dating daan that failed Mindanao and the entire country. It should not be repeated. It should not be extended. A repeat and extension of it will only benefit the terrorists who also crave for blood and violence to fill our land,” concluded Magtubo.

04 July 2017

Workers condemn secret burial for a secret hero created by a secret deal

 

There was a secret deal to make this travesty happen. The Supreme Court decision simply rendered this political deal a legal character.

 

Today’s secret burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) is a done deal.  It was a shared triumph resulting from a highly coordinated action between the Marcos family and the Duterte government.  

 

We condemn this act as a mockery of justice and an affront to the principles civility.  Why bury a ‘hero’, their ‘honorable’ leader, sneakily away from national curiosity? Hence, it rather looks like a burial  for a high level terrorist rather than one with state honors.

 

The secret burial did not only deny the victims of martial law the chance to reverse the verdict against their tormentor.  It also reduced the peoples’ genuine quest for justice a trivial chasing game of chance under the present administration.

PM & iDefend to hold protest 5:00 pm today at Boy Scout Rotunda, Timog 

November 18, 2016

There is a Marcosian solution to a parochial problem – PM

 

It is the Marcos family and not the whole nation that needs to move on by giving their dead a final resting place in Ilocos. 

 

This was according to Partido Manggagawa (PM), one of the many groups that assembled today in Luneta to express opposition to the Palace-backed burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB). 

 

“Hindi sa hindi bayani” is the group’s stand against the plan of giving Marcos a hero’s burial at Libingan.

 

“The former dictator ruthlessly ruled and divided this nation for over two decades, thus, his burial at Libingan can never be considered a unifying action.  It is the Marcos family that needs to move on in this issue by doing a simple and final act of laying their dead in Ilocos,” said the group in a statement sent to media.

 

This Marcosian solution, the group believes, is the proper way of disposing a parochial problem common to powerful oligarchs that rule this nation.  “Consume your troubles as yours alone as the Filipino people have deeper problems to confront, many of which were in fact of your creation,” said PM.

 

The group likewise believed the presidential endorsement made by President Duterte cannot bring this issue to a final closure, saying his personal commitment to the Marcos family does not necessarily represent the unified sentiment of the Filipino people.

August 14, 2016

Workers remember Edsa in one word: ‘Sayang’

PRESS RELEASE

25 February 2014

The 1986 People Power uprising created great opportunities for the country to move forward and to fulfil the great Filipino dream of enjoying a better quality of life.  Yet for the labor group, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), the past 28 years can truthfully be described as ‘sayang’ or wasted opportunities bungled by post Edsa rulers. 

In a statement PM enumerated some of the major achievements of Edsa, which, if haven’t been wasted, could have transformed the life of the working people adequately better. 

These include the dismantling of the Marcos dictatorship and replacing it with a relatively more liberal order; the institutionalization of anti-corruption measures; the ratification of a new Constitution that embodied a strong national patrimony and social justice provisions; and; the regular holding of national and local elections thereafter.

“But behind Edsa’s democratic façade were undisputable facts about its failed outcomes,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

The group stated further that while every Filipino especially those who braved the streets against the dictatorship must be recognized for making Edsa 1 and also Edsa 2 possible, it is worth evoking as well that there really is a visible failure in making life better for the masses under the rule of post-Edsa regimes. 

Notwithstanding the unaddressed problem of corruption, PM cites as a more biting example the failure of the two Aquinos (Cory and PNoy) to capitalize on their immense mandate and popularity to move the country away from the ‘business-as-usual’ development path imposed by foreign and local capital.

“So when PNoy asked his cabinet men and women on why the unemployment rate remained high despite the remarkable growth in GDP over the past several years, it only showed how pathetic the second Aquino can be to remain puzzled over the issue of jobless growth which is a problem that has been there since the time of his mother,” said Magtubo.

The average unemployment rate in 1986 was 6.7 percent. In December 2013 it stood at 7.3 percent based on government’s official survey to as high as 27.5 percent based on the survey by Social Weather Station (SWS).

The group also drew some pessimistic parallelism on the two Aquinos, particularly on the power issue.  PM explained that Cory Aquino left the Presidency with a crippling power crisis.  PNoy might finish his term in 2016 leaving the same problems of high power rates and thinning power supply.

And with the elite class apparently exercising full control of government and businesses, the group considers the PNoy government very far from being inclusive. 

In conclusion, PM pointed out that the major failures of Edsa led to the perpetuation of elite rule, inequality, and chronic poverty in the country. They include:

§  The intensification rather than the weakening of political dynasties due to lack of political reforms and the pervasiveness of corruption;

§  The dogged subservience to neoliberal policies such as privatization, deregulation and liberalization which prevented the country’s march towards industrialization and inclusive growth;

§  The corporate capture of almost all branches of government.

The group, however, won’t declare people power as “sayang”.  It maintained that all is not lost of Edsa, specifically on the necessity and wisdom of resistance and collective action taking this form.

“Workers will never give up the union spirit of collective action.  With the whole system faithfully serving the interest of the 1%, we have no choice but to keep the people power option our ultimate recourse to effect change that is truly meaningful,” concluded Magtubo.