By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Groups staged a protest rally at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) Iloilo City campus in commemoration of International Labor Day on May 1, 2021.
The groups called for upholding laborers rights, greater support for the people amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a stop to red-tagging of activists and community pantry organizers, upholding of press freedom, among many calls.
Leading labor rights organization Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in their Labor Day statement sent to media, called for accountability against the Duterte administration, whose policies they called “anti-worker and anti-people”.
The KMU lambasted the “militarized” COVID-19 lockdowns, which they say led to 1 million jobs lost in Western Visayas, and the P395 regional minimum wage which was not even close to the P1,022 living wage.
They also cited data from the IBON Foundation, which showed that the P537 minimum wage in Manila was only P434 in actual value.
The labor group proposed to divert the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) P19-billion budget as a P100 emergency daily wage subsidy for 23 million workers in the country.
The NTF-ELCAC had been in hot water since its inception for accusing activists and community organizers of recruiting rebels in communist organizations. It had also been the subject of calls for defunding from sectoral groups and several senators.
They also called for the passage of House Bill No. 7909 or the Paid Pandemic Leave Law, which would mandate the private sector to provide 14 days of paid leaves for confirmed, probable, and suspect cases of COVID-19 or any pandemic, as well as close contacts and immediate family members of COVID-19 or any pandemic case, and those placed under “floating” status by their company.
“Through this militaristic lockdown, political attacks on human rights have become worse and more bloody. Many leaders and members of labor and poor sectors have been killed by military and policemen. Because of Duterte’s directive to harass, silence, and kill all of his critics, killings left and right, riding-in-tandem [incidents], police raids, and harassment towards people have been prevalent,” KMU said in its statement.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay Deputy Spokesperson Bryan Bosque told Daily Guardian that the labor sector in Panay Island was in a “sorry” state, citing the KMU’s statement.
“It’s a saddening, sorry state of our workers. They have been left out, instead of raising their wages, the labor department has allowed the private sector to lower wages for the reason of lower incomes. Instead of supporting the workers, they have been made to paper over the cracks,” said Bosque in an interview.
Bosque also said that the Duterte administration “had already left people out in the cold, but still vilified those who kept them warm”, citing the killing of Jory Porquia, whose death anniversary on April 30 was also commemorated during the rally.
Porquia was organizing community kitchens in smaller communities in the city and province of Iloilo when he was shot in the early morning of April 30, 2020.
Bosque added that even if the government could not give jobs directly to the people, it can be able to provide subsidies and financial support, as well as the hiring of additional health workers.
These include a P10,000 subsidy for all Filipinos, and a P100 wage increase, citing the non-exhaustion of funds from the P275-billion Bayanihan 1 (R.A. No. 11649) and P165.5-billion Bayanihan 2 (R.A. No. 11494) COVID-19 relief packages.
“People are going hungry nowadays and the Duterte administration has left them out. He has done nothing to stop the hunger. Those leading feed the people are being red-tagged. Four million people had already lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 crisis, and yet the government can possibly provide interventions for this,” he said.
