Labor group supports jeepney strike for “just transition”

The militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) expressed solidarity with the jeepney drivers who are on strike today and tomorrow in the islands of Panay and Negros in protest at the phase-out scheme of the government.

“Workers do not oppose modernization and the shift to environmentally-friendly public transportation but the transition must be just. Social justice must accompany social progress. The lives and livelihood of thousands of jeepney drivers cannot be sacrificed in the name of change,” declared Elmer Blancaflor, spokesperson for PM-Iloilo and also president of the United Panay Truck Drivers Association.

He added that “We understand and sympathize with the plight of our fellow workers. The temporary inconvenience of the transport holiday cannot compare with the permanent blow that the phase-out will inflict on jeepney drivers. We hope for the understanding of employees, students and commuters who are affected. The fight of jeepney drivers is our fight too.”

The group is supporting a just transition for the jeepney sector in the face of the government’s plan to immediately phase-out PUJ’s that are 15 years and older. PM, the labor center Sentro and its affiliate National Confederation of Transportworkers Union are supporting the strike being launched in Iloilo City and the whole of the Panay island by the groups Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Owners and Drivers Associations (ICLAJODA) and Confederation of Iloilo Province Jeepney Operators and Drivers Associations (CIPJODA).

The groups are calling on the government to meet the demand for just transition. Specifically they are demanding a four-point agenda:

1.      Transition of five years before full implementation of the phase out;

2.      Assistance and subsidies to operators for the replacement of jeepneys;

3.      Ban on the importation of old and surplus engines and second-hand vehicles;

4.      Study on the most appropriate alternative to jeepneys such as electric jeeps or hybrid, LPG or Euro4 engines.

Blancaflor also slammed the draft Department of Transportation order requiring PhP 7 million as capitalization for jeepney operators. “The capitalization requirement is discriminatory and anti-poor. It will lead to the gentrification of the jeepney sector and the dominance by big capitalists to the detriment of ordinary Filipinos presently derive their livelihood as operators,” he explained.

PM said that the two-day strike is a just a preview of larger protests and a nationwide strike later if the jeepney drivers’ demands are not met.

June 5, 2017

PM welcomes Malacanang concern for Jojo Malinao case

Press Release

May 14, 2011

The Partido ng Manggagawa welcomed Malacanang’s order for the speedy resolution of the case of slain Mt. Makiling forest guard Elpidio “Jojo” Malinao. “We appreciate President Benigno Aquino III’s order for the authorities to go after the perpetrators of Jojo Malinao’s killing. Jojo was that rare combination of being an advocate for both Mother Nature and Father Labor and justly deserves to be honored by the government as a Filipino hero,” asserted Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

Malinao was an active union leader being vice president of the UPLB chapter of the Organization of Non-Academic Personnel of UP (ONAPUP), a national council member of ONAPUP and a PM leader in Laguna.

Magtubo added that “We do not have any information yet that Jojo’s killing is linked to his union activities. Although in the Philippines, unionism is a deadly vocation.” According to international human rights groups, the country has the second most number of trade union leaders killed after Colombia. The group said that Malinao is the third PM leader killed in Calabarzon since its founding in 2001.

Meanwhile Gloria almariego, ONAPUP national president stated that “The death of Jojo Malinao left a vacancy in the leadership of ONAPUP that will be hard to fill. We are praying that the perpetrators will be caught. UP must do its part to give justice to the death of Jojo.”

PM together with the union ONAPUP stated that it will closely monitor the results of the investigation and prosecution of Malinao’s case.

PM pays respects to slain forest guard

Press Release

May 13, 2011

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) expressed its condolences to the family of slain Mt. Makiling forest guard Elpidio “Jojo” Malinao and paid its respects to a “fallen comrade.” Renato Magtubo, PM national chair, stated that “Jojo Malinao was not only an advocate for environmental protection, he was also an activist for workers rights. In Jojo’s case, in the line of fire is the place of honor. The University of the Philippines has loss a loyal employee and the working class movement, an able leader.”

Magtubo revealed that Malinao was the vice president of the UPLB chapter of the Organization of Non-Academic Personnel of UP (ONAPUP) and also a national council member of the union aside from being a leader of PM in Laguna.

He called on the authorities to investigate the motive behind Malinao’s killing and find the mastermind. “We demand justice for Jojo. The government must exhaust all means to find the perpetrators of thee crime. Jojo is not the first but hopefully the last trade union leader to be killed in Calabarzon,” Magtubo declared.

The group said that Malinao is the third PM leader killed in Calabarzon since its founding in 2001. Andrew “Bok Inoza, union president of Alaska Milk in San Pedro Laguna and chairperson of PM-Laguna, was shot to death in November 2006. Earlier Emmanuel Cosme Ibe, union president of Liwayway Manufacturing Corp. in Imus Cavite and a founding member of PM-Cavite was also shot to death in April 2001 at the height of the party-list election campaign.

Ibe’s killing came just three months after the assassination of Felimon “Popoy” Lagman, whose brainchild was the formation of PM. According to international human rights groups, the Philippines is second only to Colombia in the number of trade union leaders killed.

Postponement of MRT and LRT rate hikes a media stunt to promote privatization

PRESS RELEASE

11 May 2011

Malacañang’s postponement of the planned rate hikes in the MRT and LRT systems should not be taken as a considerate act of shielding the interest of the commuting public against price hikes but more of a deliberate stint for promoting the planned privatization of the railway mass transport systems, the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

PM is opposing not only the recently approved fare hikes in LRT and MRT but also the privatization of these public utilities.  The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has approved the new rates for MRT and LRT lines 1 and 2,  just a day after the NCR wage board granted workers P22 cost of living allowance (COLA).

The new rates would require commuters to pay P11 boarding fee, with an additional P1 for every succeeding kilometre.  Accordingly, the P20 fare for LRT line 1 from

Roosevelt Avenue

in Quezon City to Baclaran in Parañaque City will be increased to P30, while the P15 fare in LRT line 2 from Marikina City to Legarda in Manila will be hiked to P25.

But transportation officials said the hike is to be postponed amid the soaring prices of other basic commodities.  PM Chair Renato Magtubo said the postponement also has nothing to do with the rising prices of other commodities as claimed by a Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) official, but more with the rush to privatize said firms.  He stated “Nor it can be presumed as a freebie to the measly cost of living allowance (COLA) granted by the wage boards to metro workers.”

The LRT system is the first to be bid out under P-Noy’s Public-Private Partnership Program.  DoTC officials claim that the private sector can do a better job in operating public utilities.  The government said it is spending at least P7 billion in subsidies to the MRT-LRT to keep fares affordable to ordinary commuters. 

The labor party said the Philippine privatization program begins with this usual propaganda line: That the government is losing money in running public utilities and the private sector can do a better job in managing them.

Earlier, Transportation Undersecretary Glicerio Sicat, head of the DoTC’s rail transport group, said the privatization of key government services had led to more efficient operations, citing as an example the privatization of public services such as water and electricity distribution which he claimed led to better and more reliable services.

But Magtubo said both P-Noy and Sicat were either absent or just cared for nothing during the last ten years to feel the impact of water and power privatization to ordinary consumers.

“The water and power privatization in the country is one of the largest privatization projects in the world.  After ten years electricity rates doubled and water rates increased by not less than 500% -- the main reason why we have one of the highest electricity and water rates in the world,” explained Magtubo.

Philippine privatization, the group added, led to the rise of private monopolies which destroys all the myths of free competition as mergers and acquisitions led to further monopolization of the market as shown in the case of PLDT-Digitel buyout – the same thing that is happening in the power and water industry.

PM insists that the light railway system is better left public, its rates remain subsidized, and service area even expanded to serve more poor commuters of the metropolis and nearby provinces. 

“The light rail should be maintained as the cheapest, most efficient and greenest mass transport in the country. Every peso spent by the government on subsidizing the LRT and MRT is money well spent. It does not only benefit the workers, students and the poor but protects the environment as well,” insisted Magtubo.

The group said that the cost-benefit accounting of the LRT/MRT operation should include a consideration of its “social good” delivered which cannot be quantified in money terms.

Angry Cavite residents to picket DENR, demand a stop to quarrying at beaches

MEDIA ADVISORY
December 7, 2008

WHAT: Picket protest by some 300 residents of Cavite to demand that the DENR move to stop the quarrying at the beaches of Rosario and Tanza towns

WHERE: DENR Main Office, Elliptical Road, QC

WHEN: 11 a.m. tomorrow, December 8, 2008, Monday

DETAILS: The protesters will be led by the New Rosario Movement and Partido ng Manggagawa. They will ask the DENR to end the quarry operations at the beaches of Rosario and Tanza towns that the people allege are destroying both the environment and their livelihood. Many Rosario and Tanza residents earn their living through fishing. The soil quarried at Rosario and Tanza is used for reclamation work at the Baseco area of Tondo, Manila.