Student and youth protest today at Senate in response to House passing MACR bill

In response to House passing MACR bill:

Student and youth form “MACR Watch,” hold protest today at Senate

In response to the passing last night by the House of Representatives on third and final reading of the proposed bill lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years, student and youth groups are formed a “MACR Watch” and held a noisy protest today at the Senate.

The opposition to the lowering of the minimum wage of criminal responsibility continues to escalate with more groups holding protests. Today youthful protesters from the student council of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the student party PUP Speak, Pwersa Youth and Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan marched from the Film Center to the Senate complex to call on senators to reject the proposed bill that seeks to criminalize children aged 12 years old and above. The protest follows on the heels of a similar protest yesterday along Katipunan Ave. by scores of Ateneo students led by the student council.

The young protesters carried a streamer with the call “Paaralan hindi kulungan para sa mga batang Pilipino! Not 9! Not 12! No to the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility!” The groups announced that they are forming a “MACR Watch” that will monitor the deliberations by Senate on the proposed bill.

The various youth groups are all part of the Partido Manggagawa (PM) partylist coalition. Dhel Pulanco, the groups’ spokesperson, declared that “The opposition to making children criminals, along with the bloody war on drugs by the Duterte administration, is part of the election platform of PM.” Pulanco is third nominee of PM which is among the 134 partylist organizations that the Comelec recently announced is accredited.

“We challenge the Senate to engage in evidence-based policy-making instead of impressionistic law-making. In last Friday’s hearing at the Senate, numerous experts spoke against the proposed bill based on tons of scientific research and case studies of children in conflict with the law. Yet committee chair Sen. Gordon abruptly ended the hearing and declared that he stands by his unsubstantiated opinion that children aged 12 years old should be arrested and imprisoned. This same modus operandi of unscientific legislative work animated the House when it passed the MACR bill,” Pulanco elaborated.

He added that “The present Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law has enough provisions to address the concerns of some about incidents of children in conflict with the law. It must be said that these incidents are decreasing according to the PNP. Address the root causes not the symptoms of the problem of children in conflict with the law. For example, the prevalence of child labor is a much bigger issue but it is not being addressed by the administration and Congress.”

The groups vowed that the action today will not be the end of the protests against the proposed bill. Pulanco averred that “Along with other student, youth, human rights and civil society organizations, we will campaign until the proposed bill is killed.”

January 29, 2019

PM partylist to hold protest today at Senate in response to House passing MACR bill

In response to House passing MACR bill:

Groups form “MACR Watch,” hold protest today at Senate

In response to the passing last night by the House of Representatives on third and final reading of the proposed bill lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years, student and youth groups are forming a “MACR Watch” and holding a protest today at the Senate.

The opposition to the lowering of the minimum wage of criminal responsibility continues to escalate with more groups holding protests. Today some two hundred youthful protesters from the student council of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the student party PUP Speak, Pwersa Youth and Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan will march from the Film Center to the Senate complex to call on senators to reject the proposed bill that seeks to criminalize children aged 12 years old and above. The planned protest follows on the heels of a similar protest yesterday along Katipunan Ave. by scores of Ateneo students led by the student council.

The young protesters will carry a streamer with the call “Paaralan hindi kulungan para sa mga batang Pilipino! Not 9! Not 12! No to the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility!” The groups announce that they are forming a “MACR Watch” that will monitor the deliberations by Senate on the proposed bill.

The various youth groups are all part of the Partido Manggagawa (PM) partylist coalition. Dhel Pulanco, the groups’ spokesperson, declared that “The opposition to making children criminals, along with the bloody war on drugs by the Duterte administration, is part of the election platform of PM.” Pulanco is third nominee of PM which is among the 134 partylist organizations that the Comelec recently announced is accredited.

“We challenge the Senate to engage in evidence-based policy-making instead of impressionistic law-making. In last Friday’s hearing at the Senate, numerous experts spoke against the proposed bill based on tons of scientific research and case studies of children in conflict with the law. Yet committee chair Sen. Gordon abruptly ended the hearing and declared that he stands by his unsubstantiated opinion that children aged 12 years old should be arrested and imprisoned. This same modus operandi of unscientific legislative work animated the House when it passed the MACR bill,” Pulanco elaborated.

He added that “The present Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law has enough provisions to address the concerns of some about incidents of children in conflict with the law. It must be said that these incidents are decreasing according to the PNP. Address the root causes not the symptoms of the problem of children in conflict with the law. For example, the prevalence of child labor is a much bigger issue but it is not being addressed by the administration and Congress.”

The groups vowed that the action today will not be the end of the protests against the proposed bill. Pulanco averred that “Along with other student, youth, human rights and civil society organizations, we will campaign until the proposed bill is killed.”

January 29, 2019

Students to protest today at Senate in response to House passing MACR bill

Media Advisory

January 29, 2019

Partido Manggagawa

Contact Dhel Pulanco @ 09179402632

In response to House passing MACR bill:

Student and youth form “MACR Watch,” hold protest today at Senate

What: Protest by 200 college students and community youth

When: Today, January 29 (Tuesday)

Assembly 12 noon at Film Center then march to Senate complex

Details: In response to the passing last night by the House of Representatives on third and final reading of the proposed bill lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years, student and youth groups are forming a “MACR Watch” and holding a protest today at the Senate.

The young protesters will carry a streamer with the call “Paaralan hindi kulungan para sa mga batang Pilipino! Not 9! Not 12! No to the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility!” The groups are forming a “MACR Watch” that will monitor the deliberations by Congress on the proposed bill. 

Young members of the Partido Manggagawa coalition mainly coming from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines student council, PUP Speak, Pwersa Youth and PM Kabataan will spearhead the rally at the Senate grounds. 

They are calling on the Senate to engage in evidence-based policy-making instead of impressionistic law-making. In last Friday’s hearing at the Senate, numerous experts spoke against the proposed bill based on tons of scientific research and case studies of children in conflict with the law. Yet committee chair Sen. Gordon abruptly ended the hearing and declared that he stands by his unsubstantiated opinion that children aged 12 years old should be arrested and imprisoned.

Labor Yearender: Endo, TRAIN spur labor disputes, workers’ unity

The unfulfilled promise to end contractualization and the runaway inflation due to the imposition of TRAIN led to an outbreak of labor disputes in 2018 and the forging of a historic unity among workers’ groups in the country. According to the latest data from the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), there were 21% more notices of strikes from January to August this year compared to the same period last year. Of the nine actual strikes recorded, five of them involved issues of regularization of workers.

Spurred by the resurgence in workers’ militancy, the country’s rival labor groups finally came together in a joint mass action in the Labor Day commemoration this year. The coalition Nagkaisa, which comprise some 40 labor groups and institutions, joined forces with the Kilusang Mayo Uno in a massive May 1 march from Espana to Mendiola. The disparate labor groups once more came together, along with other social movements and civil society organizations, in the United People’s Action during the State of the Nation address of President Duterte. Formally coming together as Manggagawa Ayaw sa Diktadura, the rival labor organizations marched again as one to slam the threat of a new dictatorship during the commemoration of the declaration of martial law last September 21.

While statistics from the NCMB show that actual strikes were down from 15 to just 9 (January to August this year compared to last year), the government’s data is inaccurate. To cite just one example, it does not include the strike last May at the Dong Seung garments factory in the Cavite ecozone. The Dong Seung strike is the latest in a string of disputes and struggles at the country’s biggest ecozone in the last four years. As a result, a dialogue finally started this year between labor groups, the DOLE and the Philippine Ecozone Authority to guarantee respect for freedom of association.

As the latest NCMB data covered only August, it does not list the biggest strike this year. On September 28, workers of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco in Marikina and Vigan went on strike for more than one month against mass layoff and job outsourcing.  Undoubtedly many of the disputes and majority of the actual strikes involve contractualization.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced in its yearend report that some 400,000 workers were regularized this year. If it were true, it is most welcome. Unfortunately the data is suspect as it has not been independently verified. The DOLE based its figures from reports by companies which obviously have an interest in bloating the numbers. It was also not reported if the workers were made regular in the principal companies or just in the manpower agencies.

What is undeniable is that the DOLE’s own compliance orders to regularize workers in the country’s biggest companies have not been implemented. Worse, it has led to mass termination of workers. Last October the DOLE NCR regional office released an order to regularize some 2,600 contractual workers in dozens of agencies used by Philippine Airlines and PAL Express. The order has been appealed by management and has not been complied with. A similar order early this year on the telco giant PLDT to regularize 7,300 endo employees was defied through the termination of service contracts with 39 contractors and thus the retrenchment of the workers.

In the face of a spike in prices, a wave of wage hikes were ordered by different regional wage boards in the country. The increases however were below the amount needed to recover the lost purchasing power of workers’ wages. To cite an example, the P25 hike in Metro Manila is short by 30% to make up for the P35.84 erosion in wages due to the average 7% inflation in the NCR. Partido Manggagawa’s own cost of living estimate for a family of five in Metro Manila is around P1,300 a day, more than double the new minimum wage of P537. This continues the pattern of worsening inequality—real wages are stagnating despite the 50% productivity growth from 2001 to 2016.

The coming new year under the neoliberal and bloody policies of the Duterte administration does not augur well for the working class. On the heap of the broken promises of ending endo and abolishing regional wages, the workers should develop their own power through unity and action. The challenge for the workers movement in 2019 is to build upon the resurgence of militancy and the forging of labor unity to make the popular clamor for change a reality.

December 29, 2018

PM sides with riders and commuters in opposing double big plate and ban on Angkas

Workers are both riders and commuters, thus, imposing rigid and prohibitive rules in the streets adds more burden to the working people and reinforces class discrimination in the guise of road safety and anti-crime campaign.

According to Partido Manggagawa (PM), the ban on Angkas operations, a popular motorcycle taxi denies thousands of working people a faster and safer mobility in NCR while the recently enacted law requiring double big plates for motorcycles is an added cost and poses safety concerns for riders whose vehicles were not designed for such anti-crime innovations.

"Banning Angkas and requiring double big plates on motorcycles will neither improve traffic conditions and road safety nor contain criminal activities of organized crime groups. Only organized communities, a disciplined police force, and a modern mass transport system can solve these age old public services deficit," said PM in a statement issued during the indignation activities conducted by thousands of motorcycle riders in Quezon City this morning.

The group said workers utilize motorcycles as the most economical and faster mode of bringing themselves to their workplaces or as the means of livelihood themselves as in the case of app-abled Angkas and other courier services.

"The government must adopt a flexible policy on this issue as rigid and discriminatory rules impacts heavily on workers," added PM.

At the same time it urges the riding community to help the government in ensuring road safety by raising the level of training and professionalism among riders in particular and by actively involving themselves in anti-crime, environment, emergency response and other social mobilizations at the community levels.

16 December 2018