Eradicating wang-wangs will not eradicate poverty

Press Statement

July 25, 2011

PNoy’s bosses are unsatisfied with the SONA. Eradicating wang-wangs will not eradicate poverty. It will not create jobs for the Filipinos nor raise the wages of workers.

Workers want a war not just against Gloria for plundering the nation but even more a war against globalization for pillaging the country’s patrimony. Labor calls for a new not just straight road. The old road of contractualization, privatization, liberalization, deregulation and globalization is at the root of the impoverishment, unemployment and hunger of Filipinos.

It is not PNoy’s leadership style that is the problem but his leadership vision that is at issue. This false vision of progress through globalization is no different from Gloria’s.

Workers hold counter SONA, challenge PNoy’s social transformation agenda

Press Release

July 25, 2011

Some 1,000 members from different workers groups comprising the anti-contractualization coalition KONTRA held a labor counter SONA at Mendiola this morning. Renato Magtubo, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) national chairperson, slammed PNoy for anti-labor policies in his first year in office.

“How can social transformation be real when groups calling for social change are blocked miles away from hearing distance of PNoy and Congress? Social transformation is impossible without political and economic reforms,” he said.

In the afternoon, PM, KONTRA, Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) and Alyansa ng Maralitang Pilipino (AMP) joined the multisectoral groups Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) and Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP) in a march from Tandang Sora to Batasang Pambansa. Meanwhile youth groups such as PM-Kabataan and Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK) assembled at Philcoa, Quezon City then merged with PM and the multisectoral groups in the march along

Commonwealth Ave.

Gerry Rivera, PM vice chair and PALEA president argued that “After one year of PNoy, there is no new program to generate jobs, no new mechanism to increase workers wages and no change in the no-union policy in the ecozones. PNoy has given the go signal for contractualization at Philippine Airlines (PAL). He has praised Hanjin’s investments but has been silent on the deaths and injuries of workers at the shipyard-cum-graveyard. PNoy has continued with sacrificing labor rights at the ecozones to attract foreign capital.”

Labor counter SONAs were also held in other cities. In Metro Cebu, PM and other groups under the coalition Kahugpungan sa Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Sugbo (KANAMASO) marched this morning from Sto. Rosario Church to downtown Colon. In Metro Davao, PM massed up at Magsaysay Park then marched along

Magsaysay Ave.

to Orcullo Park for the rally. In Iloilo, PM held a forum at UP-Iloilo and also a press conference to air its reaction to the SONA.

“Workers challenge PNoy to jumpstart his so-called social transformation agenda by reversing the Office of the President decision on PAL, declaring the security of tenure bill as a priority agenda and implementing a massive public employment program,” insisted Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

Absent major policy reforms, there will be no social transformation

PRESS STATEMENT

Church-Labor Conference (CLC)

Koalisyon Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon (KONTRA)

25 July 2011

President Aquino’s communication advisers said the President’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) will focus more on ‘social transformation’.  What would that mean in real sense, however, largely depend on how Filipinos would view their lives today and in the immediate future.  And for the masang Pinoy who have been used to hearing nice words from their leaders, this new buzzword assumes no meaning at all unless accompanied by major policy reforms. 

For unemployed workers, their ‘transformation’ would mean having stable and good paying jobs.  For contractual workers, that would mean regular and secured jobs.  For the homeless, that would mean decent homes for the family.  For the poor, sick, and old, that would mean universal healthcare and pension systems.  For the youth, that would mean free education and brighter future.  For migrant workers, that would mean a secured environment back home.  For women, that would mean more freedom and equal opportunity.

For the economy, that would mean a departure from the old system and the creation of a new roadmap for development.  In politics, that would mean an end to elite rule and the establishment of a truly democratic government.

Absent these policy changes, the much-hyped ‘social transformation’ would remain an empty phrase.  And unfortunately during Pnoy’s first year in office, the economic and labor policies that he upholds are more of the same.  He still clings to the free market economics of neoliberal globalization and upholds the policy of cheap labor and contractualization as manifested clearly in the case of Philippine Airlines and Hanjin. 

Thus, different labor groups gathered today in Mendiola and in Batasan to challenge the President that major steps must be done beyond his tuwid na daan battlecry.  So beyond the push for good governance, the manggagawang Pinoy are asking PNoy to: (1) put an end to contractualization; (2) push the passage of Security of Tenure bill; (3) implement a public guaranteed jobs program; (4) declare a moratorium on demolitions; and (5) formulate a social protection package for displaced workers in the form of unemployment insurance and the like to address the problems of the displaced workers.

SIGNED

Philippine Airline Employees Association (PALEA)

Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Hanjin (SAMAHAN)

Partido ng Manggagawa (PM)

Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)

Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN)

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)

National Union of Building and Construction Workers-National Confederation of Labor (NUBCW-NCL)

Urban Missionaries (UM)

Archdiocese of Manila Labor Center (AMLC)