The
workers group Partido Manggagawa (PM) slammed the owner of the platform app
Angkas who is running as the first nominee of the Ang Kasangga partylist. “How
can a billionaire like George Royeca represent ordinary app riders? This is
another Mikey Arroyo, son of then President Gloria Arroyo, who ran as nominee
of a fake security guards partylist group. Royeca is a poster boy for the
undermining of the partylist system as a reform measure,” asserted Judy Ann
Miranda, PM secretary general.
She
added that riders have been misclassified as freelancers by platforms and as a
result have been denied the protection of labor standards and social security.
“Riders have been organizing against abuses by platforms such as arbitrary cuts
in pay. How can Royeca speak and fight for riders’ rights and welfare when he
owns the app?,” Miranda averred.
According
to the COMELEC, 73 partylist groups have filed their certificates of nomination
and acceptance. But more are expected as 170 partylist groups have been
accredited by the COMELEC.
“The
Constitution provides for the partylist system as a mechanism for
representation of marginalized groups such as workers who traditionally have
been excluded from Congress as a result of elite domination of politics.
Unfortunately, fake partylist groups, like Ang Kasangga of the Angkas CEO, have
provided a backdoor for trapos and capitalists to enter the House of
Representative. They have squeezed out legitimate partylist organizations truly
representing workers and other basic sectors,” Miranda explained.
Ang
Kasangga first ran in 2010 ostensibly as a partylist of small entrepreneurs but
the COMELEC disqualified its first two nominees—a businessman and a former
mayor—for not belonging to a marginalized group. In the same election, Mikey
Arroyo won as security guards partylist representative.
PM was
among the second batch of partylist groups which successfully put leaders of
marginalized groups into the House of Representatives. Rene Magtubo, a factory
worker and union president, sat as PM partylist representative for two terms
until 2007.
Miranda
called on app riders to reject Ang Kasangga and instead vote for partylist
groups which truly represent workers and other underrepresented groups.
October 7, 2024