PRESS RELEASE
Partido ng Manggagawa
9 October 2008
Globalization’s unregulated world of production and the transnational corporation’s TNCs) predilection to outsource cheap labor to reduce production cost and optimize profits is to blame for the recent global scare of food contamination.
This view was expressed by the Partido ng Manggagawa, a militant labor party, following the release yesterday of initial results of the test conducted by the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drug on selected milk and dairy products from China believed to be possibly contaminated with melamine.
The test found another product from China, the JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat milk (1 Liter), positive of melamine contamination. That brings the number to three of 52 products tested positive, according to the DOH.
Partido ng Manggagawa chair, Renato Magtubo, said that while the test results confirmed the scale and frightful reality of food contamination, the hard part of this problem-solving exercise is where to demand accountability and identify policy instruments that gave rise to this kind of problem.
“The government can easily ban the sale, importation and distribution of Chinese made products as a preventive and corrective measure. But how can we prevent the re-emergence, or the appearance of a new problem, which are largely due to the current global production pattern and the world’s plunge to a deregulated regime,” lamented Magtubo.
The former partylist representative explained that under globalization, production and movement of products are ‘internationalized’, so complex yet interwoven. On the other hand, the free market regime freed these products from the usual and stringent regulation, thus jeopardizing quality and obscured accountability on the part of the producers.
“The tale that God created the world and everything else is made in China, is no longer a funny joke. It is a reality that the world must confront. TNCs rushed to China to outsource their production because of cheap labor,” said Magtubo, adding that globalization had made it possible “to de-link their product brands from its national identity, while outsourcing cheap labor from the world’s sweatshops ensured lower production costs and therefore higher rates of return for TNCs.”
Same with the problem of the global financial crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa also sees the need to re-regulate the global production and trading system by reversing the policy of free market which ensures corporate greed and profits rather than the workers and peoples’ welfare.
Corporate branding
The Partido ng Manggagawa also shared the view of the International Union of Food workers (IUF), a world-wide federation of trade unions representing workers in agriculture and plantations, food and beverages, that behind the melamine milk scandal lies an emerging crisis in ‘corporate branding’.
According to IUF, one of the reasons for the heavy promotion of "global" brands was so that consumers wouldn't know (and would eventually stop caring) where products are made.
The UIF said the major transnational food companies spent the 1980s in a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions, buying up local brands and grabbing bigger market shares. By the mid-90's companies like Nestle, Unilever and Kraft had built up extensive brand portfolios and held the largest market shares in a range of food products -- everything from cooking oil to ice cream, instant coffee and biscuits.
By the end of the 1990s the new logic of financialization set in. The brands themselves became valuable financial assets and their value could be boosted through a blend of Wall Street wizardry and aggressive marketing rather than better manufacturing.
“So there was an irrational shift to rationalization: cutbacks, restructuring and consolidation. Less is more. Now fewer brands were better. By focusing on a few global brands in overseas markets, the financial value of these brands would skyrocket. Nestle and Unilever called these their "billion dollar brands", while Kraft would "shrink to grow" -- with just 10 global "power brands" by 2008,” said the IUF in its editorial posted at www.iuf.org/www/en/.
The IUF contends that the global brands location no longer mattered. Production was relocated overseas (and relocated again and again) while aggressive brand marketing ensured that consumers continued to believe they were buying a locally made product with a global identity.
“The power of the global brand for companies like Nestle, Unilever and Kraft lies in their ability to shift production to countries like China, while loyal consumers believed it was the same product. As an added bonus, the companies could trumpet their ‘green’ credentials and commitment to tackling global warming while loading up the products with thousands of additional food miles. Supposedly behind the familiar local brand stands a caring, concerned global company,” said the IUF.
The IUF also noted that the finance-driven global branding encouraged a tidal wave of casualizing and subcontracting work within the companies' own operations so that even quality control personnel are managed and hired as casual employees through labor hire agencies.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Labor party won’t buy Nograles’ pitch for cha-cha
PRESS RELEASE
Partido ng Manggagawa
2 October 2008
Transforming the US financial crisis into an opportunity for the Philippines was not just a wishful thinking on the part of the House Speaker but an insidious ploy by the administration to smuggle its charter change agenda.
“The view that the worsening financial crisis in the US may turn into a golden opportunity for the Philippines was more like King Midas’ political imagination rather than sound economic wisdom of Speaker Nograles,” said Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chair, Renato Magtubo.
Speaker Nograles had said that the US financial crisis offers us the best argument to "lift equity restrictions" on the prohibitive 60-40 constitutional provision that favors only local businessmen, adding that amending the constitution would give Americans and Filipino migrants the opportunity to transfer their investments here.
Magtubo, who was a former partylist representative for labor, pointed out that there was no solid argument to support the claim that Fil-Am’s decisions to bring their investments back home is restricted by that constitutional provision, and thus comes the urgent need to lift it. Even with Americans and other aliens whose investments here are already protected by many foreign investment laws such as the build operate and transfer (BOT).
Magtubo explained that on the contrary, their decision to invest in the country may not be bothered by the Philippine conditions but by the overall investments climate amid capitalism’s continuing dip into global recession.
“In fact, what we must be greatly concerned of are the fate of our OFW’s and emigrants living in the US and other countries badly hit by the financial crisis since the immediate impact of that crisis is the rise in unemployment rate,” said Magtubo.
Magtubo cited a recent report by Reuters based on the findings of some business analysts that US factories are now at “recession levels” causing a rise in the unemployment rate.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity fell to 43.5in September from 49.9 in August. An index of below 50 means contraction instead of expansion. Another report by employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reveals that job cuts brought the third-quarter layoffs total to 287,142, the highest quarter of cuts since the fourth quarter of 2005. The September non-farm payrolls report from the Department of Labor is expected to show a loss of 100,000 jobs, according to a median estimate from economists.
The labor leader said that under this condition, the government must be more concerned with the ‘capacity’ of our OFWs to secure their jobs abroad and weather this crisis than their ‘ability to invest’ their dollars in the country, which they already did by sending most of their incomes back home to support their families.
There are at least eight million Filipinos working abroad, according to the records of POEA. It is assumed that their jobs as well as their income are threatened by this global recession. One in every six Filipino families derives most of their income from OFW remittances, according to studies.
“It should be this kind of risk and prospect that our government leaders should prepare. Otherwise, making use of the crisis as an ‘opportunity’ to revive the charter change campaign, is barefaced political opportunism,” said Magtubo
Accordingly, to prepare the country for the worse impact of the global crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa called on national leaders to reverse its economic policies that were hinged more on foreign investments rather than on developing our own industry and the real economy.
“It can be done by redirecting the more than P600B debt service payments this year for economic and social services. Banks and pension funds should also be mandated to invest their money in agriculture, industry, housing, and other sectors of our real economy, rather than in ‘casino’ speculative markets offshore,” concludes Magtubo.
Partido ng Manggagawa
2 October 2008
Transforming the US financial crisis into an opportunity for the Philippines was not just a wishful thinking on the part of the House Speaker but an insidious ploy by the administration to smuggle its charter change agenda.
“The view that the worsening financial crisis in the US may turn into a golden opportunity for the Philippines was more like King Midas’ political imagination rather than sound economic wisdom of Speaker Nograles,” said Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chair, Renato Magtubo.
Speaker Nograles had said that the US financial crisis offers us the best argument to "lift equity restrictions" on the prohibitive 60-40 constitutional provision that favors only local businessmen, adding that amending the constitution would give Americans and Filipino migrants the opportunity to transfer their investments here.
Magtubo, who was a former partylist representative for labor, pointed out that there was no solid argument to support the claim that Fil-Am’s decisions to bring their investments back home is restricted by that constitutional provision, and thus comes the urgent need to lift it. Even with Americans and other aliens whose investments here are already protected by many foreign investment laws such as the build operate and transfer (BOT).
Magtubo explained that on the contrary, their decision to invest in the country may not be bothered by the Philippine conditions but by the overall investments climate amid capitalism’s continuing dip into global recession.
“In fact, what we must be greatly concerned of are the fate of our OFW’s and emigrants living in the US and other countries badly hit by the financial crisis since the immediate impact of that crisis is the rise in unemployment rate,” said Magtubo.
Magtubo cited a recent report by Reuters based on the findings of some business analysts that US factories are now at “recession levels” causing a rise in the unemployment rate.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity fell to 43.5in September from 49.9 in August. An index of below 50 means contraction instead of expansion. Another report by employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reveals that job cuts brought the third-quarter layoffs total to 287,142, the highest quarter of cuts since the fourth quarter of 2005. The September non-farm payrolls report from the Department of Labor is expected to show a loss of 100,000 jobs, according to a median estimate from economists.
The labor leader said that under this condition, the government must be more concerned with the ‘capacity’ of our OFWs to secure their jobs abroad and weather this crisis than their ‘ability to invest’ their dollars in the country, which they already did by sending most of their incomes back home to support their families.
There are at least eight million Filipinos working abroad, according to the records of POEA. It is assumed that their jobs as well as their income are threatened by this global recession. One in every six Filipino families derives most of their income from OFW remittances, according to studies.
“It should be this kind of risk and prospect that our government leaders should prepare. Otherwise, making use of the crisis as an ‘opportunity’ to revive the charter change campaign, is barefaced political opportunism,” said Magtubo
Accordingly, to prepare the country for the worse impact of the global crisis, the Partido ng Manggagawa called on national leaders to reverse its economic policies that were hinged more on foreign investments rather than on developing our own industry and the real economy.
“It can be done by redirecting the more than P600B debt service payments this year for economic and social services. Banks and pension funds should also be mandated to invest their money in agriculture, industry, housing, and other sectors of our real economy, rather than in ‘casino’ speculative markets offshore,” concludes Magtubo.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
WOMEN WORKERS SUPPORT THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL
Reproductive health is a woman’s right. It is a woman’s right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to her sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. The enabling conditions for its exercise are equal relationships between women and men, including full respect for the integrity of the person, and mutuality, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences. Implicit in this exercise is the right of women and men to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable health-care services.
We support the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill because it embodies many aspects of the principle of reproductive health as a woman’s right:
1. The RH Bill promotes sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflects a commitment to women’s social and economic well-being, and affirms the moral capacity of women and men to make sound decisions about their lives. Because reproductive health is central to overall health, fundamental aspects of women’s well-being are compromised when reproductive health is ignored. Women are placed in bondage to reproduction and biology if only “natural family planning” is tolerated.
2. The RH Bill makes it the responsibility of the state to protect the right to choose, not to make decisions for individuals. Women’s right to choose is a basic part of exercising control over their lives. The Bill provides for women to be informed and to services that will ensure women’s ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights. However, reproductive rights are only likely to be exercised effectively and responsibly by women when certain other economic and social rights and entitlements have been realized. The conditions under which choices are made are as important as the actual content of women’s choices: the right to choose is a meaningless abstraction if women are powerless to choose.
3.The RH Bill recognizes the catastrophic health consequences of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Poverty is not only implicated in these deaths, it is also often its direct cause. The RH Bill acknowledges the reproductive health needs of vulnerable young and poor women and the removal of legal as well as attitudinal punitive measures against those who have undergone poorly managed abortions.
4. The RH Bill acknowledges that reproductive and sexual health are integral to social and economic health. Fertility control must be part of a broader program which seeks to improve women’s health and education; provide women with productive work; promote gender equity, especially by placing equal responsibility for reproduction and child-rearing on men; and reorient structural social, economic and development processes towards an equitable distribution of the nation’s, and the world’s, productive assets.
5. The RH Bill affirms that human sexuality and gender relations are closely interrelated and together affect the ability of men and women to achieve and maintain sexual health and manage their reproductive lives. The differential power between men and women in general, and husbands and wives in particular, is a major factor in women’s ability to exercise reproductive options. Those who have most at stake in every pregnancy should be allowed a decisive voice and choice on their own behalf.
We urge the legislators to affirm women’s right to reproductive self-determination and support the Reproductive Health Bill.
PARTIDO ng MANGGAGAWA
WELGA ng KABABAIHAN
We support the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill because it embodies many aspects of the principle of reproductive health as a woman’s right:
1. The RH Bill promotes sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflects a commitment to women’s social and economic well-being, and affirms the moral capacity of women and men to make sound decisions about their lives. Because reproductive health is central to overall health, fundamental aspects of women’s well-being are compromised when reproductive health is ignored. Women are placed in bondage to reproduction and biology if only “natural family planning” is tolerated.
2. The RH Bill makes it the responsibility of the state to protect the right to choose, not to make decisions for individuals. Women’s right to choose is a basic part of exercising control over their lives. The Bill provides for women to be informed and to services that will ensure women’s ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights. However, reproductive rights are only likely to be exercised effectively and responsibly by women when certain other economic and social rights and entitlements have been realized. The conditions under which choices are made are as important as the actual content of women’s choices: the right to choose is a meaningless abstraction if women are powerless to choose.
3.The RH Bill recognizes the catastrophic health consequences of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Poverty is not only implicated in these deaths, it is also often its direct cause. The RH Bill acknowledges the reproductive health needs of vulnerable young and poor women and the removal of legal as well as attitudinal punitive measures against those who have undergone poorly managed abortions.
4. The RH Bill acknowledges that reproductive and sexual health are integral to social and economic health. Fertility control must be part of a broader program which seeks to improve women’s health and education; provide women with productive work; promote gender equity, especially by placing equal responsibility for reproduction and child-rearing on men; and reorient structural social, economic and development processes towards an equitable distribution of the nation’s, and the world’s, productive assets.
5. The RH Bill affirms that human sexuality and gender relations are closely interrelated and together affect the ability of men and women to achieve and maintain sexual health and manage their reproductive lives. The differential power between men and women in general, and husbands and wives in particular, is a major factor in women’s ability to exercise reproductive options. Those who have most at stake in every pregnancy should be allowed a decisive voice and choice on their own behalf.
We urge the legislators to affirm women’s right to reproductive self-determination and support the Reproductive Health Bill.
PARTIDO ng MANGGAGAWA
WELGA ng KABABAIHAN
US Troops Out of Mindanao; Genuine Self-Determination for Moros Now
The United States' involvement in the war in Mindanao can no longer be denied. Several times in the last month, at the height of Philippine military offensives against Moro fighters, US soldiers were repeatedly seen with Filipino troops, helping recover bombs, evacuating casualties, or joining Filipino troops in Philippine military camps throughout Mindanao. The Philippine military itself categorically confirmed that the US military has been providing it with "technical assistance" in pursuit of Moro rebels.
All these continue a pattern of reports that have accumulated in the last few years: Just in February, a Filipino general confirmed that it was the crew of a US spy plane that provided the intelligence which resulted in an operation in which eight civilians, including a pregnant woman and two children, were killed in Maimbung, Sulu.
The latest revelations that the US has been expanding its military structures in Zamboanga City not only confirm what we have been warning against; they heighten our concern that the US intends to stay in the Philippines for the long-haul.
In joining Filipino troops in their operations, providing them information, locating bombs, rescuing casualties, or giving technical assistance, the US military is clearly involved in actual combat in the Philippines. In stationing troops and equipment in various military facilities in the south, the US has established permanent basing in the country.
Not only is this patently unconstitutional, it also further contributes to escalating and exacerbating the violence and insecurity in Mindanao, drawing parties towards all-out war, away from a just and peaceful resolution.
We therefore demand that US troops immediately withdraw from all of Mindanao and that no US troops be involved in any operations.
We likewise demand that the Philippine military desists from further military offensives, that it immediately pulls out its troops from the region, and that it returns to the negotiating table.
We oppose the arming of civilians by the Philippine government and demand the immediate disbandment of militias and private armies.
We denounce the targeting and killing of innocent civilians by any side and we demand justice and reparations for all those who have been killed, displaced, and affected by the war.
To address the root causes of the war, we support an agreement that would genuinely advance the Moro's and the indigenous people's right to self-determination – as they themselves define it, free from others' imposition and intervention. This entails recognizing and respecting the Bangsamoro people's right to self-rule.
In any agreement, the indigenous peoples' rights must at all times be assured and protected through specific provisions and measures. While we call for the indigenous people's rights not to be subsumed under those of the Bangsamoro, we oppose efforts to set one oppressed people against another and we refuse to allow one oppressed peoples' rights to be used to deprive another people of theirs.
Narrow vested interests of local and foreign powers should not be allowed to stand in the way of guaranteeing the universal right to self-determination. For it is only by advancing the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro and the indigenous peoples that lasting peace and justice can be achieved.
PARTIDO NG MANGGAGAWA
STOP THE WAR! COALITION- PHILIPPINES
15 September 2008
All these continue a pattern of reports that have accumulated in the last few years: Just in February, a Filipino general confirmed that it was the crew of a US spy plane that provided the intelligence which resulted in an operation in which eight civilians, including a pregnant woman and two children, were killed in Maimbung, Sulu.
The latest revelations that the US has been expanding its military structures in Zamboanga City not only confirm what we have been warning against; they heighten our concern that the US intends to stay in the Philippines for the long-haul.
In joining Filipino troops in their operations, providing them information, locating bombs, rescuing casualties, or giving technical assistance, the US military is clearly involved in actual combat in the Philippines. In stationing troops and equipment in various military facilities in the south, the US has established permanent basing in the country.
Not only is this patently unconstitutional, it also further contributes to escalating and exacerbating the violence and insecurity in Mindanao, drawing parties towards all-out war, away from a just and peaceful resolution.
We therefore demand that US troops immediately withdraw from all of Mindanao and that no US troops be involved in any operations.
We likewise demand that the Philippine military desists from further military offensives, that it immediately pulls out its troops from the region, and that it returns to the negotiating table.
We oppose the arming of civilians by the Philippine government and demand the immediate disbandment of militias and private armies.
We denounce the targeting and killing of innocent civilians by any side and we demand justice and reparations for all those who have been killed, displaced, and affected by the war.
To address the root causes of the war, we support an agreement that would genuinely advance the Moro's and the indigenous people's right to self-determination – as they themselves define it, free from others' imposition and intervention. This entails recognizing and respecting the Bangsamoro people's right to self-rule.
In any agreement, the indigenous peoples' rights must at all times be assured and protected through specific provisions and measures. While we call for the indigenous people's rights not to be subsumed under those of the Bangsamoro, we oppose efforts to set one oppressed people against another and we refuse to allow one oppressed peoples' rights to be used to deprive another people of theirs.
Narrow vested interests of local and foreign powers should not be allowed to stand in the way of guaranteeing the universal right to self-determination. For it is only by advancing the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro and the indigenous peoples that lasting peace and justice can be achieved.
PARTIDO NG MANGGAGAWA
STOP THE WAR! COALITION- PHILIPPINES
15 September 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Cavite urban poor groups appeal for moratorium on demolitions
MANILA, Philippines, 09/18/2008 | 01:16 PM — Urban poor groups in Cavite province appealed to the government on Thursday to declare a moratorium on demolitions in view of the economic crisis.
They issued the appeal after two of their leaders were arrested Thursday morning as they tried to prevent a scheduled demolition at Barangay Bitong Dalig, in the town of Kawit.
Wilfredo Bonga, together with Raul Moring of Samahang Nagkakaisa ng Cavite (Sanagca) were arrested as police ordered the dispersal of some 600 residents who marched and formed a barricade around the target area of demolition.
In a statement, Romy Cabugnason, chairman of the Partido ng Manggagawa chapter in Cavite, said police used a water cannon to break the protesters who tried to secure their place against the advancing demolition crew.
“When the crowd resisted using their bodies as shields, policemen accosted and dragged the two leaders and brought them to the nearby Kawit municipal hall. The protesters proceeded to the municipal hall and vowed not to leave the place until their leaders are freed," said Cabugnason.
The protesters are said they were only asking for a moratorium on demolitions while relocation sites are not yet available for families that will be displaced. After dispersing the protesters, the demolition crew proceeded with the demolition, tearing down at least 50 shanties in just an hour, said the statement.
The Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino said the government should declare a moratorium on demolitions especially during these times of acute economic crisis which makes life even harsher for the poor.
Tonette Fajanilan of Sanagca chair cried foul on the government’s use of force during the demolition and vowed to pursue their cause not only in the streets but also in courts.
She said that even in cases where valid court orders are issued by the court, demolition cannot be implemented until relocation sites for affected families are already secured. The intent of this ruling is to avoid an abrupt dislocation of urban poor people.
“Kahit kami mahirap, may karapatan pa rin naman kami sa makataong pagtrato. Kung ang mga rebelde ay kinakausap ng gubyerno, bakit kami ay hindi gayung ang tanging kasalanan lang naman namin ay ang maging mahirap (Even if we are so poor, we also have the right to be treated humanely. If the government talks with rebels, why don’t our officials also talk to us when our only fault is to be poor," said Fajanilan.
“Ang kailangan namin ngayon ay tulong, hindi pwersa at dahas (what we need now is help, not force or violence," Fajanilan said.
Threats of demolition is haunting Cavite residents along the coastal lines of Bacoor, Kawit, Noveleta and Cavite City because of the R-1 expressway extension project and the conversion of the Sangley Point into a major port and logistics hub. - GMANews.TV
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/121191/Cavite-urban-poor-groups-appeal-for-moratorium-on-demolitions
They issued the appeal after two of their leaders were arrested Thursday morning as they tried to prevent a scheduled demolition at Barangay Bitong Dalig, in the town of Kawit.
Wilfredo Bonga, together with Raul Moring of Samahang Nagkakaisa ng Cavite (Sanagca) were arrested as police ordered the dispersal of some 600 residents who marched and formed a barricade around the target area of demolition.
In a statement, Romy Cabugnason, chairman of the Partido ng Manggagawa chapter in Cavite, said police used a water cannon to break the protesters who tried to secure their place against the advancing demolition crew.
“When the crowd resisted using their bodies as shields, policemen accosted and dragged the two leaders and brought them to the nearby Kawit municipal hall. The protesters proceeded to the municipal hall and vowed not to leave the place until their leaders are freed," said Cabugnason.
The protesters are said they were only asking for a moratorium on demolitions while relocation sites are not yet available for families that will be displaced. After dispersing the protesters, the demolition crew proceeded with the demolition, tearing down at least 50 shanties in just an hour, said the statement.
The Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino said the government should declare a moratorium on demolitions especially during these times of acute economic crisis which makes life even harsher for the poor.
Tonette Fajanilan of Sanagca chair cried foul on the government’s use of force during the demolition and vowed to pursue their cause not only in the streets but also in courts.
She said that even in cases where valid court orders are issued by the court, demolition cannot be implemented until relocation sites for affected families are already secured. The intent of this ruling is to avoid an abrupt dislocation of urban poor people.
“Kahit kami mahirap, may karapatan pa rin naman kami sa makataong pagtrato. Kung ang mga rebelde ay kinakausap ng gubyerno, bakit kami ay hindi gayung ang tanging kasalanan lang naman namin ay ang maging mahirap (Even if we are so poor, we also have the right to be treated humanely. If the government talks with rebels, why don’t our officials also talk to us when our only fault is to be poor," said Fajanilan.
“Ang kailangan namin ngayon ay tulong, hindi pwersa at dahas (what we need now is help, not force or violence," Fajanilan said.
Threats of demolition is haunting Cavite residents along the coastal lines of Bacoor, Kawit, Noveleta and Cavite City because of the R-1 expressway extension project and the conversion of the Sangley Point into a major port and logistics hub. - GMANews.TV
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/121191/Cavite-urban-poor-groups-appeal-for-moratorium-on-demolitions
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