NO TRANSPARENCY, NO DEAL!

The digital economy is booming, but the riders who keep it moving are being left behind!

 

Kapatiran sa Dalawang Gulong (KAGULONG) questions the lack of transparency and workers’ participation in the negotiations for the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA). How can ASEAN claim to build an inclusive digital economy when motorcycle taxi riders, delivery riders, and other platform workers—the very people who keep this economy running—have been excluded from the negotiating table?

 

No meaningful consultation. No adequate disclosure of negotiating texts. No clear guarantees for workers’ rights. Yet ASEAN governments are pushing forward with an agreement that could reshape the future of platform work across Southeast Asia.

 

For riders, the digital economy is not simply about apps, investments, and technological innovation. It is about surviving long hours on dangerous roads, rising fuel and maintenance costs, shrinking earnings, arbitrary account deactivations, unfair incentives, and the absence of adequate social protection.

 

We carry the passengers. We deliver the goods. We shoulder the risks. But Big Tech takes the profits!

 

Across ASEAN, platform companies continue to expand while riders face a race to the bottom in earnings and working conditions. Without strong labor safeguards, DEFA could further strengthen corporate control over the digital economy while leaving workers with fewer rights and greater insecurity.

 

We are particularly concerned that negotiations dominated by economic and trade officials prioritize corporate profits and market expansion over decent work and labor protection. Digital integration must not become another instrument for multinational technology corporations to exploit cheap and disposable labor.

 

KAGULONG is not against digital progress. We are against progress that enriches corporations while impoverishing workers!

 

We therefore demand that ASEAN governments publicly release the DEFA negotiating texts, conduct genuine consultations with independent riders’ organizations and trade unions, and guarantee enforceable protections for fair earnings, freedom of association, collective bargaining, social security, occupational safety, and protection against arbitrary platform decisions.

 

We further demand that DEFA must not weaken existing labor protections or prevent governments from regulating digital platforms in the public interest.

 

A truly inclusive digital economy must lift workers out of poverty—not push them deeper into exploitation.

 

RIDERS’ RIGHTS BEFORE BIG TECH PROFITS!

 

WE MOVE THE DIGITAL ECONOMY. WE DEMAND OUR FAIR SHARE

PRESS STATEMENT

KAPATIRAN SA DALAWANG GULONG (KAGULONG)

14 November 2026