Workers rights must be protected in a better BBL

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We won’t get justice by counting more dead; war is not the answer

PRESS STATEMENT

30 January 2015

Partido Manggagawa (PM) joins the nation in mourning the death of SAF 44.  As breadwinners, husbands, and brothers to their families, their death is certainly a big loss, a pain that is hard and long to overcome.

And as soldiers who were trained how to survive under the most difficult situations, their undeserved deaths cry for justice.  Who were the officers in charge? Who were the people accountable for the Mamasapano debacle? Was there a foreign hand behind that operation?

We continue to ask the same questions as we join the people in demanding justice and accountability from both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).  Their separate investigations must be done in good faith and in soonest possible time.  An independent fact finding body can also be organized to ensure fairness and objectivity in the conduct of investigations.

But in seeking justice, we express our strong disagreement to those who call for all-out war to exact retribution.   War is not the solution.  Justice, we believe, should not come as a consequence of another war.  We don’t get justice by counting more dead as what we have seen over many decades of war in Mindanao.  We don’t get the truth from hatred and established social and religious prejudices.

Lastly, despite this major setback, we remain supportive of the peace process between the government and the MILF.   Working for peace, however tough and tricky it is, remains to be the most effective and viable alternative in addressing the historic and new issues that created the conditions of war in Mindanao.