PM calls on workers to join October 4 Ayala anti-pork protest

PRESS RELEASE

01 October 2013

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called on fellow workers to join Friday’s continuation of Million People’s March anti-pork barrel scam protest in Ayala Avenue, Makati City. PM and labor coalition Nagkaisa! is joining the march. 

“Both the venue and protest date are significant to workers.  The Ayala district is home to at least one million blue and white collar job workers.  Beginning October 4, workers in NCR are due to receive a P10 crumb from the new Wage Order,” stated PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

Upon its issuance last month, PM described the P10 wage order an insult and a classic case of bigay-bawi since its value eventually eroded by the impending MRT rate hike, increase in price of rice, and the looming power and water rates increases.

But amidst the backdrop of protruding corruption scandals in the highest levels of government, Magtubo said, “the workers’ need to deliver its strongest condemnation of this system: Enough of this kind of rule!”

Magtubo said workers are now totally enraged at how billions of pesos of taxes that were paid out of workers’ productivity are appropriated by corrupt politicians among themselves.

“The new economic formula called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), since illegal, is nothing but contraband smuggled into the pockets of lawmakers for a special job well done,” said Magtubo, referring to the additional allocation to lawmakers on top of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) after the impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The labor leader and former party-list representative added that DAP, as explained by Malacanang, is a stimulant for ‘miscarriage’ and not for ‘growth’ since its implementation is worse than the PDAF. 

 “The best thing it was able to achieve was boost the spending spree or personal savings of politicians not the purchasing power of ordinary workers,” Magtubo concluded.