Group condemns arrest of 10 members on the way to SONA

 

Ten members of the Bulacan chapter of the militant group Partido Manggagawa (PM) and the driver of the vehicle they were using were detained and stopped from proceeding to the protest rally on the occasion of the last State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte.

 

“We condemn the illegal detention of our members and the violation of the right to peaceful assembly. We call for their immediate release. On Duterte’s last year in power, the pandemic of human rights violations continue even as the administration’s covid response is an epic fail,” stated Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

 

The PM Bulacan group was on the way to the SONA rally but was stopped at a checkpoint around 8:30am. When the police saw banners and placards, the group was informed that they were in violation of "ELCAC and social distancing."

 

“We were all wearing masks and face shields. And the van was big enough for the ten of us to be social distancing inside,” explained Ver Estorosas, PM Bulacan chair and leader of the group. The group is still detained at the Hillcrest Caloocan sub-station 8 "pending investigation."

 

PM mobilized factory workers, urban poor and community youth to the SONA rally held at the Commission on Human Rights grounds. “We demand TABAKK or Trabaho, Ayuda, Bakuna, Karapatan at Kasarinlan. This set of demands correspond to the recent Pulse Asia survey in which jobs, the economy, inflation, vaccination and the West Philippine are what Filipinos want to hear of the SONA. But we have no illusions that Duterte will heed these grievances as what he is concerned now is the continuation of his regime and avoiding incarceration for the crimes committed under his bloody regime,” Miranda insisted.

 

Yesterday, PM joined the group Movement Against Terror Law in unfurling a giant streamer emblazoned with the slogan “Goodbye Duterte” along Commonwealth Avenue.

Photos of the PM Bulacan group can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/10159214841459323

 

July 26, 2021

Labor Yearender: Workers are in the frontlines of a fight against the pandemic of rights violations

 

Without a doubt, covid-19 has gravely affected everyone, rich and poor, employer and worker. Still, workers and the poor are the ones who have been disproportionately impacted. The double-digit economic recessions in the second and third quarters of this year has been felt as grinding poverty and daily hunger by 7 million Filipino families as revealed in the SWS survey in September.

 

The Philippine economy is in worse shape compared to its neighbors is due to the harsh and long lockdown. It is the authoritarian response of the Duterte administration that is to blame for the economic recession and the adverse effect on the working class. The administration was late in forming a response and once it did, it treated the pandemic—similar to how it treated the drug addiction—as a peace and order concern instead of a public health matter. The severe lockdown shuttered the economy, and left workers and the poor without jobs and livelihood for months on end. The aid provided by the government reached only 3 million households out of 16 million Filipinos who were temporarily jobless during the lockdown. Today 4.5 million are unemployed and 2.2 million more are out of work but are not officially jobless only because they stopped looking for employment.

 

To make matters worse, employers used the pandemic as an opportunity to deny workers their benefits and their rights. Workers were put on floating status for more than the six months allowed by law. Establishments reopened but replaced regular workers with new hires on endo status. Some employers shutdown their firms without paying workers separation and other benefits. Capitalist Grinches are exploiting the pandemic to bust unions as shown by the experience of the Arcya Glass Employees Union in Laguna and the First Glory labor union in the Mactan ecozone.

 

While the pandemic of rights violations spread, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) exercised social distancing from workers. The DOLE released a series of orders and advisories that denigrated labor standards and rights. Labor Advisory 17 allowed employers to cut wages and benefits as long as workers will agree. But workers were left with no choice but to bite the bullet of wage cuts as the DOLE suspended the filing of complaints under DO 213. Labor groups called on the DOLE to dialogue but were repeatedly denied. Meanwhile the government banned protests and arrested those who tried using the pandemic as an alibi. In one incident, the picketline of Sejung Apparel  workers in the First Cavite Industrial Estate was dispersed by police and guards in the middle of Black Friday night for allegedly violating quarantine rules. With workers strikes and street protests effectively banned, Congress railroaded the Anti-Terror Law.

                                    

But workers are fighting back and are in the frontlines of the struggle to reclaim their rights. The Arcya Glass workers spent their holidays in the picketlines to protest the continued operation of the factory despite allegedly being permanently closed. The First Glory labor union has voted to go on strike to demand the reinstatement of 300 fired workers. Labor groups in the Philippines together with international union federations have formed the Caucus of Global Unions Pilipinas to call for the repeal of the Anti-Terror Law on pain of the country losing its trade privileges with Europe. Workers in four big factories in the Mactan ecozone have organized into unions as a result of recent grievances over lack of aid during the pandemic and long-running issues over wages and benefits. Certifications elections are due to be held next year in the four firms. We predict that 2021 will see a resurgence of workers’ actions to defend democratic freedoms and labor rights.

December 29, 2020

Tugon sa pagpaslang sa pinuno ng Anakpawis: Itigil ang patayan!

Ang panahon ngayon ay para sa pasagsagip ng buhay. Sa gitna ng pandemya, ang patayan ay walang puwang. Ang ulat sa karumal-dumal na pagpaslang kay Anakpawis Chairperson Randall Echanis, ay nagpapakita na kahit ang Covid-19 ay hindi napigil ang extrajudicial killings na nangyayari sa bansa sa nakalipas na apat na taon.

Nakikiisa ang Partido Manggagawa sa lahat ng sektor na nananawagan ng hustisya sa pagpasalang sa pinuno ng Anakpawis. Sobrang lawak at lalim na ng problema ng bansa sa pagharap sa pandemya para dagdagan pa ng ganitong klase ng karahasan at paglabag sa karapatang pantao. Ang ganitong pangyayari ay nagpapakita rin na ang Pilipinas ngayon ay hindi lang mapanganib sa mabilis na pagkalat ng Covid-19 kundi sa laganap na karahasan kung saan nasasangkot ang mga elemento ng estado.

Hangad ng manggagawa ang kabutihan ng lahat sa panahong ito ng krisis. Ang patayan, kung gayon, ay kasamaang dapat matigil at ang mga sangkot sa ganitong krimen ay dapat usigin at managot sa batas

10 August 2020

On his fourth year and 5th SONA: Duterte is the biggest pasaway

A change in change narrative is underway. Duterte’s 5th SONA after four years in office, as expected, will never be a list of new pledges as promises made in 2016 is a grand fail. Instead, a narrative of ‘pasaway na Pinoy’, ‘pasaway na bisaya’, or ‘pasaway na terorista, unyonista, aktibista at human rights’ will be peddled for public consumption, in a blame game where this administration never admits a single failure of its own.

When in fact it is Duterte himself and his ilk in Congress who wasted four years in realizing the end to endo, increasing wages by abolishing the provincial rate system, stamping out corruption, freeing the country from foreign domination, ending the drug menace, and in making this country a primarily middle class nation in the immediate future. On the contrary it will, for convenience’s sake, make the pandemic a grand alibi in declaring a state of the nation that was never been good in the last four years and which, due to the persisting health and economic crises, will never become better for the rest of his term.

Workers will reject that kind of a narrative for it is Duterte’s failures in many aspects during the last four years, combined with its mishandling of the health crisis during the last four months, that make workers’ lives more miserable today. The virus came at a time workers job security remained unprotected with the veto of the anti-endo bill, while low wages, unemployment and underemployment leave workers with no savings to prepare for the rainy days.  I short, the massive loss of jobs and income today will only make living more unbearable for the millions of workers, formal and informal, local and overseas.

And so, who is the pasaway to blame for the sad state of the nation that we are in today? Certainly not the workers who were left behind during the last four years and who were forced into quarantine during the last four months.  Not the powerless masses who cannot afford the price of fighting the powerful.

Ang tunay na pasaway ay ang mga nasa kapangyarihan dahil sila ang mas sumusuway sa Konstitusyon at karapatan ng mamamayan. Silang inuna ang terror law sa halip na stimulus programs. Silang ang plano pagkatapos ng SONA ay magcha-cha habang nasa gitna tayo ng pandemya.

Sa madaling salita, si Duturte mismo ang tunay na pasaway.

Signing of anti-terror law and veto of anti-endo bill reveals Duterte’s real color

President Duterte’s signing of the anti-terror law and his veto of the anti-endo bill reveals that he is undeniably an enemy of labor rights. The contrast is remarkable. Duterte made a promise to abolish endo only to drag his feet and at the crucial juncture shoot down the bill that will limit contractualization. Now, labor activists fighting for regular jobs and workers’ rights are threatened by the vague provisions of the anti-terror law.

Even without an anti-terror law, labor rights are already under attack by the agents of the State. In the middle of the lockdown, at the height of Black Friday last April 10, elements of the Dasmarinas police threatened to arrest two workers manning the picketline in the First Cavite Industrial Estate if they don’t abandon the protest. In January this year, the PNP and the Philippine Export Zone Authority launched the Joint Industrial Peace and Concern Office (JIPCO) in Central Luzon to prevent militant unionism in the export zones. Two years ago, photos of three women union leaders were posted under the heading “wanted” at the gate of the Mactan Economic Zone in Cebu.

All these flagrant violations of labor rights by agents of the State will be enabled by the restriction of civil liberties under the draconian provisions of the anti-terror law. Thus workers have a stake in resisting and defying the slide to authoritarianism.

Workers will fight back and push back against the restriction of civil liberties and suppression of labor rights. Last June 30, workers held a global day of action against the anti-terror bill. On July 7, workers will join others sectors in a bigger action to protest the authoritarianism. 

July 4, 2020