Pagpupugay ng Partido Manggagawa kay Ka Dodong

Nagbibigay-pugay ang Partido Manggagawa kay Ka Dodong Nemenzo habang nakikiramay sa kanyang mga naiwang mahal sa buhay--si Princess at kanyang mga anak at kapatid.

 

Sa pagpanaw ni Ka Dodong ay parang nawalan ng isang tatay ang progresibong kilusan sa Pilipinas. Walang dudang isa syang father figure para sa maraming grupong pampulitika, Mga grupong madalas nagbabangayan tulad minsan ng mga magkakapatid. Pero kumporme sa sitwasyon naman ay nagkakaisa din. At sa mga pagkakataong yun ay malamang nasa gitna si Ka Dodong.

 

Ayon sa nasusulat, inamin ni Ka Dodong sa UP Board of Regents na sya ay isang komunista--pero bilang indibidwal na paniniwala hindi bilang kasapi ng isang Partido. Sa kasong ito, ang isang kahinaan ay naging isang kalakasan. Ang natatanging papel na ginampanan si Ka Dodong ay bilang kinikilalang lider na pinagkakatiwalaan at pinakikinggan ng iba’t ibang mga grupo.

 

Sa papel na iyan nakaugnayan ng PM si Ka Dodong. Pinakamatingkad ito noong naging susing lider si Ka Dodong sa pagbubuo ng Laban ng Masa sa yugto ng pakikibaka para ibagsak ang rehimeng Gloria Arroyo. Bukod sa pagbibigkis ng iba’t ibang militanteng grupo ay natahi ni Ka Dodong maging ang mga rebeldeng sundalo noong panahong iyon. Bilang lider ng Laban ng Masa ay kalahok si Ka Dodong di lang sa pagbabalangkas ng mga taktika at plano kundi kakapit-bisig sa mismong mga protesta at pagkilos sa kalsada.

 

Bukod sa matalas ang kanyang isipan ay malakas pa ang kanyang pangangatawan noon. Para sa mga lider at kasapi ng PM na nakaupang-palad ni Ka Dodong noong panahong iyon, ay buhay na buhay ang pagiging scholar-activist niya.

 

Ito rin ang dahilan kung bakit, bago pa man pormal na maitayo ang PM, naging masugid na ka-diskusyon ni Popoy Lagman si Ka Dodong. Noong panahon ng isplit sa CPP noong 1990’s ay isa si Ka Dodong sa mga hiningan ng opinyon at katalakayan ni Popoy sa pagsusumikap na dalisayin ang teorya at praktika ng pagrerebolusyon sa ating bansa. Sigurado isa sa mga napag-usapan nila ay ang karanasan ng PKP sa pagbubuo ng isang elektoral na partido ng manggagawa. Kalaunan ay pangungunahan ni Popoy ang pagtatatag ng PM bilang kaganapan ng ideyang ito.

 

Nakakalungkot na wala na sila pareho. Pinaslang si Popoy ng mga kaaway ng manggagawa. Si Ka Dodong naman ay ginapi ng matinding sakit.

 

Malaking kawalan na mula noong 2016 na nagkasakit si Ka Dodong ay di na sya kasing-aktibo. Ganunpaman nakakasalamuha pa rin namin sya pana-panahon sa mga talakayan laluna’t nananatili namang malinaw ang kanyang kaisipan at punong-puno pa rin sya ng mga ideya ukol sa pagsusulong ng pakikibaka para sa pagbabago. Hanggang nitong nakabalik ang isang Marcos sa Malacanang ay kasa-kasama pa natin si Ka Dodong sa mga pagpupulong. Kahit na naka-wheelchair at hirap ang pangangatawan ay matalas pa din ang kanyang pagsusuri sa mga bagay-bagay.

 

Pumanaw man si Ka Dodong ay hindi na nabubura ang kanyang ambag sa pagsusulong ng progresibong kilusan sa Pilipinas. Para sa mga anak-anakang naiwan ng isang father-figure ng progresibong kilusan, isang karangalan at responsibilidad na ipagpatuloy ang kanyang nasimulan. Nasa balikat natingipagpatuloy at ipagwagi ang kilusan para sa pagbabago.

 

Mabuhay ang alala ni Ka Dodong! Tuloy ang laban!   

Workers to UP: Fight for academic and workplace freedom

Only tyrants are hostile to academic freedom. Sila ang bawal sa UP, hindi ang aktibismo at malayang kaisipan.

 

The Partido Manggagawa (PM) joins the UP community in upholding academic freedom within the UP system in particular and for all other universities and learning institutions in general. Academic freedom does not make enemies of the state. It is, on the contrary, this democratic value that unmasks and unmakes tyranny, bigotry, and fundamentalism.

 

The current generation of workers are surely not aware of this old, little-known pact between UP and the government as represented by the Department of National Defense. Similar to this pact is the ‘50-meter proximity rule’ and non-interfernce during labor disputes that police and military are mandated to observe (Rule 19 Section 3 of 2010 PNP Operational Procedures). This was further upheld by 2011 “Guidelines on the Conduct of the DOLE, DILG, DND, DOJ, AFP and PNP Relative to the Exercise of Workers’ Rights and Activities”.

 

This rule, however, is often violated during strikes and lockouts. Lately, a more systematic way of undermining workplace freedom is imposed with the establishment of Joint Industrial Peace Concern Office (JIPCO) in economic zones or EPZAs.

 

It is in this context that Filipino workers cannot sit idle watching hard-won freedoms collapse in the workplace and campuses because a new tyrant thinks that his only way to preservation is the demolition of human rights.  It is because he is also aware of the fact that it is only freedom that can stop a tyrant from perpetuating his rule. ###

Open classes when truly safe, other modalities must be made universally accessible

Photo from NY Times

With the country’s PCR-based mass testing capacity not even available to all our workers, opening our schools this coming August is not only unsafe for our children but will also be very costly when alternative learning modalities are applied. The case of infected South Korean students and our own poor pandemic response raise many red flags on this issue.  

First, on mass testing. Without the vaccine and our mass testing capacity stuck at minimal level, sending their children to school is a choice which is exceedingly difficult to decide for poor families who cannot even get free mass testing and adequate subsidies to secure their own health and economic survival at home. On the other hand, not enrolling when schools officially open in August places unnecessary pressure on both parents and students whose dreams of getting out of the poverty trap the soonest time possible through education remain high despite the pandemic.

Second, on transportation. The government did not even make provisions of shuttle services for their employees mandatory to all employers. Students from poor families rely on public transport and we see them battered daily by the violence of our mass transportation system. Adjusting to the new and reduced capacity of our mass transport system will further expose children and their mothers to more hazards. On the other hand, requiring them to be shuttled by service vehicles which rates are more expensive is too much of a burden for parents whose economic future are threatened by manifold crises due to this pandemic.

Third, on the physical setup. Our overcrowded schools need to be re-modelled first to ensure physical distancing and we have not yet seen any plan on how to do this in the remaining few weeks. Will it mean dividing the number of sections and classes and therefore extending the working hours of our teachers?

Fourth, on alternative learning modalities. E-learning or distance learning is a sound idea as long as the infrastructure for it is ready and universally accessible to all students of all classes, public and private. In fact, the time for distance learning has come several years earlier than the pandemic but it did only serve a privileged class of students enrolled in high end universities.  Private schools may continue to offer this mode for capable students but for public schools, a universal online modality remains a wishful thinking at this point in time. To our knowledge, even our premier state university, the University of the Philippines, did not make online classes mandatory during the lockdown period because not all UP students and teachers have gadgets and access to reliable internet.

This online class divide can only be resolved if the state will provide free internet services to all barangays and online gadgets are made affordable to all households. Unfortunately, our national broadband capacity embedded in the power transmission lines is now under the control of the Chinese-run National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. To maximize its free use for educational purposes, the transmission system has to be re-nationalized, notwithstanding many other issues supporting the argument for its renationalization.

Education as a social good must be made universally accessible to all, including the new and advance systems of learning modalities. Otherwise, without system and infrastructure reforms, Philippine education in times of pandemics will stay as a model itself of social inequality that infected this nation for over a century now.

25 May 2020