Increased 'de minimis' is good but we want discount card, too - labor group

Laborers buying snacks (file photo)

MANILA, Philippines -- While thanking the Aquino administration for increasing workers’ “de minimis” benefits by P10,000, a labor group said on Monday the government could do more for workers by providing them with discount cards they can use to purchase groceries or pay tuition, subsidized by unspent appropriations in the 2014 budget.

"We want to see President Benigno Aquino III make a long-lasting and meaningfully impacting reward in spending (the) 2014 excess annual budget for working Filipinos,” Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions, said in a statement.

De minimis benefits are small benefits not covered by withholding tax that are given to employees on top of their wages and are supposed to go to workers’ health, company goodwill and efficiency.

Starting January, workers’ de minimis benefits will increase from the current P94,225, implemented in 2012, to P104,225.

Current de minimis coverage includea P750 medical cash allowance for dependents, P1,500 rice subsidy, P4,000 annual uniform and clothing allowance, P10,000 annual medical allowance, P300 laundry allowance, P10,000 for employees’ achievement award, P5,000 Christmas gifts and/or anniversary certificates, and 25 percent meal allowance for overtime work and nightshift in all regions.

Aside from proposing discount cards, ALU also suggested that government spend any budget surplus by building a workers’ center where local talent may be trained and certified based on the needs of the domestic labor market.

The discount card and workers’ center were among the 10 demands presented by the Nagkaisa labor coalition during their April 29 Labor Day breakfast with Aquino.

“We don’t want Mr. Aquino’s legacy for working people to be known for improving de minimis benefits alone. He can improve their lives by investing on a training center or impacting their lives with a discount card,” Seno said. - By: Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com

‘Tax the rich instead of raising MRT fares’

THE labor coalition Nagkaisa! on Friday demanded that the government take away the subsidies and tax perks from the rich, such as the P5.2-billion subsidy for the power industry and five to seven-year tax holidays for local and foreign corporations, if it wants to save P2 billion in subsidies by imposing fare increases in the MRT and LRT.

Partido Manggagawa spokesman Wilson Fortaleza said removing the P7-billion to P10-billion annual train subsidy to free up money amounting to P2 billion for other social services was a fallacious argument, saying the poor, who are entitled to government subsidy in varying degrees, should not, by class or geographical location, be pitted against each other.

"This is comparable to the fact that businesses across all industry also enjoy billions of pesos of subsidy in the form of tax holidays, financial assistance, free repatriation as well as import and export privileges," said Fortaleza whose PM belongs to Nagkaisa! coalition.

He said the power industry, the most lucrative business in the country today, received a total of P5.2 billion in subsidy in 2012 based on the 2012 Census of Philippine Business and Industry.

He also cited the seven-year tax holiday granted a Thai-owned firm for putting up a P2- billion hogs and poultry business in the country, prompting local producers and growers to complain that the domestic hogs and poultry industry was being killed by big foreign corporations.

Fortaleza reiterated his group's position that it is more productive to provide an annual subsidy to the estimated 500 million rides of blue-collar workers and students who use the trains regularly than the luxurious lifestyles of 500 public officials.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the commuters' groups RILES and TREN are set to question the MRT-LRT fare hike on Jan. 5, a day after the rate increase is enforced by the government.

"We will question the basis for the increase, the authority of the agencies who approved the hike and the process by which the increase was upheld," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

He exhorted the public to support their initiative especially in seeking a temporary restraining order and massive street protests.

"We call on commuters to support this initiative by joining the various protest actions leading up to Jan. 5 and beyond. It is callous on the part of the regime to announce the hike during the holidays and implement it during the visit of the Pope. This period of joy and hope is dampened by the prospect of greater burdens on the poor," Reyes said.

"For that, let the world see the heartless, anti-people government that we have. And let the world know that the Filipino people are resisting its unjust impositions."

Nagkaisa!, for its part, likewise bewailed the huge revenue losses coming from tax evasion and smuggling, saying the failure to address this age-old problem had created a "pass-on" culture in public policy.

"This is the reason why the burden shifted heavily to indirect taxes like Value Added Tax and taxes withheld from wage earners.  At the same time, smuggling creates abundance of cheap imported goods at the detriment of local producers. And now the removal of subsidies," Fortaleza said.

He said smuggled goods had no local labor components, which was both a revenue and job loss to Filipinos.

He said PM supported the view of Senator Allan Peter Cayetano that unless trillions of pesos of lost revenue due to smuggling, tax evasion and official corruption was plugged, the removal of MRT/LRT subsidy would be painfully and socially unjust.

"Subsidy is a good social policy.  It is a right, an entitlement of poor people while corruption and fraud are privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful.  By removing the subsidy, the government is renouncing a good policy," Fortaleza said.

Quoting the World Bank, Cayetano said for every P1 collected by the government, P2 remained uncollected. This was estimated to be between P2 to P4 trillion of lost revenue or bigger than the recently approved budget of P2.6 trillion.

Cayetano said he would take up this issue next year amid the plan by the government to remove the subsidy to the metro rail system. The plan would double the MRT and LRT fares beginning Jan. 4.

Fortaleza said the coalition Nagkaisa! will be meeting next week to draw up plans against the impending fare hike. -  By Christine F. Herrera / Manila Standard Today

Protest against MRT-LRT fare hike swells

Congressmen crossed party lines yesterday to join the swelling protest against government’s approval of a 50 to 87 percent fare hike on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) systems starting January 4.

Reps. Sherwin Gatchalian (NPC, Valenzuela City) and Terry Ridon (Kabataan Partylist) were the latest to join the growing number of politicians who have assailed the planned fare increase.

Gatchalian, a member of the Malacanang-allied majority bloc, warned that whatever gains the public has been experiencing from a series of cuts in oil prices, the MRT and LRT fare hike will spoil.

Effective January 4, MRT-3 fare rates from North Avenue to Taft Avenue and vice versa in MRT-3 will increase to P28 from P15. Fares from Baclaran to Roosevelt and vice versa (LRT-1) will increase to P30 from P20 and LRT-2 fares from Recto to Santolan and vice versa will increase to P25 from P15.

The announcement came at a time when the MRT-3 and LRT Lines 1 and 2 were accorded substantial government assistance in the soon-to-be signed General Appropriations Act, which includes the amounts of P4.65 billion in subsidy, P7.94 billion for MRT rehabilitation and P4.67 in unpaid MRT taxes.

REDUCE P2-B SUBSIDY

The newly approved bicameral version of the Supplemental Budget, which will be immediately carried out in 2015, has the following items: P1.21 billion for MRT rehabilitation and capacity extension and P728 million rehabilitation fund for LRT 1 and 2.

“Instead of raising MRT and LRT fares, the government should first improve the services of the mass transport system amid frequent glitches and a serious accident last August where 40 passengers were injured after a wayward MRT train rammed through metal railings and a lamp post at Taft Avenue Station,” said Gatchalian, a senior member of the Nationalist Peoples Coalition (NPC) .

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has justified the increase in mass transit fares as a move to reduce the P12 billion which the government spends to subsidies the MRT and LRT operations.

The DOTC said the hike will cut the subsidy by P2-B, an amount equivalent to the construction cost of 8,240 classrooms, or 11,440 hectares of irrigated farmlands.

Gatchalian, a former mayor and currently vice chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development lamented that “govt did not even wait for the holiday season to pass before announcing the planned increase for MRT and LRT fares. This will definitely neutralize the positive effects of the recent jeepney fare rollback as well as the impending rollback in taxi and bus fares.” .

INSULT, INJUSTICE

At the Senate, Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate public services sub-committee demanded that DOTC defer the ‘’unnecessary and untimely’’ fare increase describing it as an “added insult and an injustice to the suffering riding public.”

“How could they be so insensitive to the millions of commuters and MRT and LRT riders?’’ Poe lamented, stressing that DOTC has not met public expectations even for the basic facilities of the train system like elevators, escalators and comfort rooms.

To feel the daily burden of MRT commuters, Poe joined the long queue of passengers, bought her ticket and rode the MRT from its North Avenue station to Taft. .

“We must remember that a mass transport system such as the MRT is an essential government service,” Poe stressed.

“The sorry state of the MRT brought about to a large extent by government mismanagement and ineptness cannot justify an increase. The government is obligated to maintain the subsidy until the system’s services and safety are upgraded,” the senator added.

“While the MRT and LRT is in Metro Manila, the riders of these trains are mostly wage earners whose contribution to the national economy is far reaching and impacts productivity,” Poe stressed.

Labor and commuter groups slammed the fare hike and urged government to increase the subsidy since it benefits tax-paying workers, who contribute to the country’s coffers.

“To us, subsidizing at least 500 million rides of workers a year is more productive than subsidizing the comfortable travel of 500 VIPs in government,” Nagkaisa member Wilson Fortaleza said.

Nagkaisa is a coalition of at least 49 labor federations in the country.

IT’S ABOUT TIME

But Malacañang stood firm on the rail fare hike.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma said the government has been subsidizing the MRT for years and it is just about time to correct the fare system.

He, however, said the Palace will leave it to Congress to decide on the matter. (With a report from Samuel P.Medenilla) Manila Bulletin

TRO sought vs LRT/MRT fare hikes

MANILA, Philippines - An organization of commuters and consumers together with Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz will ask the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the planned fare increase in the Light and Metro Rail Transit systems in January.

“We are filing a petition with the SC, together with the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters’ Group, to stop this fare adjustment. Our lawyers are now drafting the petition,” De la Cruz said yesterday.

“This fare increase is the worst Christmas gift that the administration can give to the public, especially the millions of working masses in Metro Manila. This is not only unchristian, it is totally uncalled for as there was no public hearing,” he added.

De la Cruz said millions of riders and taxpayers subsidize LRT Lines 1 and 2 and Metro Rail Transit 3.

“However, a good part of annual subsidies is lost to corruption. We are left with a creaking system that is an accident waiting to happen,” he said.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya has announced that fares would go up starting on Jan. 4.

He said several public hearings had been conducted in the past.

The fare adjustment will affect more than a million commuters using the LRT and MRT-3 lines. An estimated 650,000 riders take the MRT-3 daily.

Rep. Fernando Hicap of Anakpawis party-list said the government should take over MRT-3, instead of increasing fares.

He said higher fares would only benefit the facility’s investors.

Hicap said MRT-3 “was funded majority by public funds,” with only $190 million being contributed by private investors and $485 million coming from loans guaranteed by the government.

He pointed out that investors were assured of a 15-percent return on their investment.

“The Aquino government should retract its order to increase fares, start taking over the rail system and abandon its plan of using billions in public funds to buy the utility only to privatize it all over again,” he said.

Palace: Congress probe not needed

There is no need for a special session of Congress to assess the legality of the impending fare hike in the LRT and MRT because this is justified, Malacañang said yesterday.

“There is no need for an investigation because the basis for the fare hike is reasonable. The subsidy has been in effect for a long time. It’s time to correct the fare system,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office told reporters yesterday.

But a special probe is within the prerogative of Congress if it decides to conduct one, Coloma said.

He said it would be up to the leaders of Congress to decide on the matter, adding the executive is ready to defend its decision.

Coloma said Malacañang would not back down on its position to increase fares in the LRT and MRT.

He said the upgrade of LRT and MRT facilities had started even before the decision for a fare hike was finalized.

“In fact, new coaches for MRT 3 will arrive next year,” Coloma said.

“We just really need to address the long-delayed and long-postponed issue of rationalizing or adjusting the fare structure,” he added.

Coloma said government’s efforts to improve the operations of the railway systems, including maintenance and replacement of tracks, were continuing.

He said President Aquino had explained to the public the need to collect reasonable LRT and MRT fares.

Fare hike opposed

Sen. Grace Poe yesterday called on the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to defer the impending fare increase in the LRT and MRT.

Poe said the fare hike is uncalled for as commuters want to see improvement first in the railway system.

“A mass transport system such as the MRT is an essential government service. The fare increase is an added insult and an injustice to the riding public whose lives are put on the line everyday,” she said.

“The government is obligated to maintain the subsidy until the train system’s services are upgraded,” she added.

Based on the new fare matrices issued by the DOTC, rates for MRT 3 will increase from P15 to P28 (from North Avenue to Taft Avenue and vice versa); from P20 to P30 in LRT-1 (Baclaran to Roosevelt), and from P15 to P25 in LRT-2 (Recto to Santolan).

Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, senior vice chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development, joined yesterday the thousands of commuters opposing the LRT and MRT fare hike amid frequent breakdowns due to mismanagement.

“Instead of raising MRT and LRT fares, the government should first improve the services of the mass transport system,” Gatchalian said.

Protests set

Various labor groups are gearing for protest actions to express opposition to the upcoming increase in LRT and MRT fares.

Nagkaisa, the country’s biggest labor coalition, said different trade unions would meet after the holidays to discuss plans against the fare hike.

Nagkaisa convenor Josua Mata said most of the train riders belong to the working class. – By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) | With Aurea Calica, Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero, Mayen Jaymalin

Poe to DOTC: Stop MRT fare hike

SENATOR Grace Poe urged the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Monday to postpone the "unnecessary and untimely" fare hike of Metro Rail Transit (MRT) effective January 4 next year.

Poe, who led a Senate inquiry on the malfunction of MRT-3, said the fare increase would only bring "insult and injustice" to the commuters.

"We must remember that a mass transport system such as the MRT is an essential government service. The fare increase is an added insult and an injustice to the suffering riding public whose very lives are put on the line everyday," Poe said.

"The sorry state of the MRT brought about to a large extent by government mismanagement and ineptness cannot justify an increase. The government is obligated to maintain the subsidy until the system's services and safety are upgraded," she added.

Based on the new fare metrics released by DOTC, rates for end-to-end trips in MRT-3 will increase to P28 from P15 (from North Avenue to Taft Avenue and vice versa); P30 from P20 in Light Rail Transit (LRT)-1 (from Baclaran to Roosevelt and vice versa); and P25 from P15 in LRT-2 (from Recto to Santolan and vice versa).

If there are concerns regarding the implementation of new fare system, Poe said the DOTC should have discussed the matter in the last hearing since three public hearings have already been conducted.

"Considering that they have a date already to implement a new fare system, they should have volunteered it in the last hearing. But they did not. How could they be so insensitive to the millions of commuters and MRT, LRT riders?" she said.

Poe said the agency should have asked for a consultation first from all stakeholders, involving the MRT and LRT riding public.

A group of workers also opposed the fare increase, saying the adjustment would neither mean comfort nor improvement in services.

Partido Manggagawa spokesperson Wilson Fortaleza said more than 70 percent of MRT's finances goes to equity rental to MRT Corporation, its original private concessionaire.

He said PM, together with other groups under the labor coalition Nagkaisa, will be planning protests to oppose the scheduled fare hikes.

“If (President) Aquino thinks that the cheerful mood of the Christmas season will dampen the workers’ and people’s anger at this fare hike, then he is mistaken. People hate those who foul up their Christmas season and think that they can get away with it,” said Kilusang Mayo Uno chairperson Elmer Labog. (Sunnex)- By Ruth Abbey Gita SunStar

Groups to plan protest actions vs train fare hike

MANILA, Philippines - Various labor and people's organizations will launch protest actions against the impending Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) fares increase next year.

Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (Sentro) and one of the convenors of labor alliance Nagkaisa, said the fare hike is "anti-labor."

"The timing is not just bad. The policy itself is very bad, it's anti-labor," Mata said.

He said labor groups under Nagkaisa will meet after Christmas to come up with protest plans against the fare hike.

Mata noted that majority of the city's train riders belong to the working class who are the ones suffering daily from the poorly maintained railway systems.

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) also scored the scheduled increase while the workers' wages stagnated to the barest minimum.

"We believe pulling money out of a worker's pocket through a fare hike is an incentive to private concessionaires. We will gain nothing from it, not even improved services," FFW president Sonny Matula.

Another Nagkaisa convenor, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, hit the fare hike, saying it shows the government's repeated blunders in running public utilities because of over-reliance to private concessionaires.

Meanwhile, Renato Reyes Jr. of the militant group Bayan said they will contest the fare increase at the "soonest possible time."

"The DOTC's (Department of Transportation and Communicatios) treachery prevents oppositors from getting a TRO (temporary restraining order) because of the holiday season. Nonetheless, we will protest and challenge the fare hike," Reyes said.

The government hopes to generate around P2 billion from the fare hike which ranges from 50 percent to 87 percent.

Reyes alleged that the reason for the increase is not to give better service to the train ridership but to assure profit to the private companies.

"The users-pay principle government is invoking basically tells the commuter to fend for himself as no government subsidy is forthcoming. It's simply government abandonment of the taxpayers," he said. - By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com)

Organized labor opposes MRT/LRT rate hike

The country’s biggest labor coaltion Nagkaisa is adding its voice to the growing opposition to the impending rate hikes in the metro rail transport system.

Josua Mata, Secretary General of Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa or Sentro and one of the convenors of Nagkaisa likened the plan to a “wrecking ball” that will smash the train riders en masse come 2015.

“The rate of every crushing ride in MRT and LRT will be rising at a time rates in other PUVs are falling because of plummeting prices of oil. The timing is not just bad. The policy itself is very bad, it’s anti-labor,” said Mata.

Mata said labor groups under Nagkaisa will be meeting after Christmas to come up with protest plans against the fare hike.

Majority of the city’s train riders belong to the working class. They are the ones who suffer the daily violence of riding an beyond-capacity and poorly maintained railway system.

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) likewise assailed the planned increase while workers wages stagnated to the barest minimum.

“We believe pulling money out of a worker’s pocket through a fare hike is an incentive to private concessionaires. We will gain nothing from it, not even improved services,” said FFW President Sonny Matula.

Another convenor, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, bewailed the fare hike, saying it shows the government’s repeated blunders in running public utilities because of over-reliance to private concessionaires.

“Again, this is another example of PNoy leading from the back. Over reliance on Cabinet Secretary Abaya who not only doesn’t get, but is nowhere to be seen and heard. Result: over reliance on a greedy, socially irresponsible private sector concessionaire. Same thing in power: no policy leadership, ergo emergency powers request by another lackey in the person of Petilla who is letting the private power sector dictate supply policy. We are at the not so tender mercy of a government that does not have regulatory balls,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of ALU-TUCP.

On his part, Partido Manggagawa (PM) spokesman Wilson Fortaleza argued that the government should rather increase, not remove, the subsidies being enjoyed by train riders and at the same time put more money in developing the country’s deteriorating mass transport system.

“To us, subsidizing at least 500 million rides of workers a year is more productive than subsidizing the comfortable travel of 500 VIPs in government,” said Fortaleza, adding that all taxpayers pay for at least P8-billion a year of travel subsidy for our public officials.

In 2012, some 219 million rides were recorded in MRT-3, with an average 600,000 daily passengers. LRT 1 and 2 have 241 million combined.

Various groups protest Metro Manila elevated train fare hike

Filipinos say the rate increase had come at a bad time

Manila: Various groups are opposing the government’s move to hike fares for Metro Manila’s intracity elevated train service as they accused the Aquino administration of favouring the interests of big business rather than those of commuters.

The “Nagkaisa,” (United) said a move of the Department of Transportation and Communications to allow a substantial increase in fares for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transport (MRT) would hit commuters, especially at a time when they needed the elevated trains to get around the metropolis for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The groups opposing the train fare hike said the rate increase had come at a bad time.

“The rate of every crushing ride in MRT and LRT will be rising at a time rates in other public utility transport are falling because of plummeting prices of fuel oil. The timing is not just bad,” said Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (United Workers Centre or Sentro).

On the part of the Associated Labour Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), it said the issue is a matter of confused priorities and an ill-effect of the past and present government’s lack of foresight to invest in vital public infrastructures on its own without reliance from the private sector which has its own business interests to look after.

Quite simply they said, the issue of elevated train fare hikes is indicative of the clashing interests of the private
businesses that own and developed the MRT.

The LRT was started during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos in the early 1980s. It was developed to provide cheap and fast transport to commuters in Metro Manila. To do this, the then government had to socialise the infrastructure, in effect “subsidising” a portion of the fares for every train rider.

The MRT on the other hand, which was developed during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos in the 1990s and started operation during the presidency of Joseph Estrada in 2000 was put up mainly from money from private investors rather than the government as in the case of the LRT.

The two public utility infrastructures were from separate and distinct business models and the current government is now trying to blend these two to provide transport to Metro Manila residents and visitors.

“Again, this is another example of the government leading from the back.The result: Over reliance on a greedy, socially irresponsible private sector concessionaire. We are at the not so tender mercy of a government that does not have regulatory resolve,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of ALU-TUCP.

The left-wing umbrella Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance or Bayan) said the matter concerning the fare hikes is an issue of public interest over private sector gain. Fare hikes are much of a political as well it is an economic concern in a developing country such as the Philippines.

Renato Reyes, secretary general of Bayan said the train fare hikes are an “insult” to the commuter riders, most of whom are from the working class, who have to bear riding in unsafe trains.

In the case of the MRT, Japanese experts said the train has increased chances of being involved in a disastrous accident as its rails and overall running systems have been poorly maintained.

Last August 14, a train of the MRT overshot its tracks at the Taft station. The accident caused injury to a number of people. Fortunately there were no fatalities. - By Gilbert P. Felongco - Gulf News

Support the cause, sign the petition, Justice for Rolando Pango

Rolando Pango, a full time organizer with the Partido Manggagawa (PM) was gunned down in Binalbagan town in Negros Occidental on November 29, 2014. Prior to his assassination Pango was organizing sugar plantation workers on Hacienda Salud, which is leased and operated by Manuel Lamata, President of the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines. In June, Hacienda Salud workers applied for land under the Philippines Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. They also filed a case against Lamata at the National Labor Relations Commission for illegal dismissal of 41 workers.

"This is a grim reminder that in certain industries and sectors like sugar plantations the Philippines is a dangerous place for trade unionists," said Josua Mata, General Secretary of IUF-affiliated union federation SENTRO and co-convener of NAGKAISA, the broadest coalition of labor groups in the Philippines.

NAGKAISA! is challenging the culture of impunity which effectively sanctions extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations against union members and leaders. The PM and Nagkaisa are calling on the national and local governments to render immediate justice in the Pango case and will be raising his assassination with the Tripartite Industrial Council (TIPC) and the Department of Justice panel investigating the murders of labour activists.

YOU CAN SUPPORT THEM -  SEND A MESSAGE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES CALLING FOR AN URGENT INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE KILLING

Extra-judicial killings, other human rights violations persist under ‘tuwid na daan’ – Nagkaisa!

A culture of impunity translated into extra-judicial killings (EJK) and other forms of human rights violations against leaders and labor organizers continue under the ‘tuwid na daan’, a coalition of major trade unions and labor organizations in the country, Nagkaisa!, said in a statement on the eve of the celebration of International Human Rights Day.

 

Since 2011, Nagkaisa! is engaged in dialogues with the Aquino administration on several labor issues, including some 62 unsolved cases of EJKs involving labor.

 

Nagkaisa! said the most recent in the cases of unsolved EJKs was the  murder of a labor organizer in Negros Occidental.  Rolando Pango, a full time organizer of Partido Manggagawa (PM) was gunned down in Binalbagan town in Negros Occidental on Novermber 29, 2014.

 

“Prior to his death, Pango was deeply involved in both the agrarian and labor disputes in Hacienda Salud, a 135-hectare sugar plantation in Barangay Rumirang, Isabela leased and managed by Manuel Lamata,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Pango was instrumental in organizing the plantation workers in Hacienda Salud who in June applied the land under CARPER coverage.  Salud workers has also filed of a case of illegal dismissal before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) against Lamata for unlawful termination 41 workers. 

 

PM and Nagkaisa is calling on both the national and local governments to render immediate justice to this case.  

 

Josua Mata, Secretary General of Alliance of Progressive Labor–Sentro, said Nagkaisa will be raising this issue before the Tripartite Industrial Council (TIPC) and the DOJ panel investigating the EJKs.

 

“Like Ruby, solving cases of EJKs in the country is a slow-grind,” said Mata.

 

Before Pango, another PM organizer, Victoriano Embang, leader of Maria Cecilia Farm Workers Association (MACFAWA) in Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental was also killed on December 29, 2012.  A failed assassination attempt against his brother, Anterio Embang, followed  few months later, February 28, 2013.

A Negrense himself, Magtubo said Negros remains a ‘labor hotspot’ because of strong resistance by landlords to agrarian reform and their outmoded serf-type treatment of their laborers.  

 

“Perhaps this regional feudal context has escaped the eyes of the labor department and the national government.  Or they simply don’t care,” added Magtubo.

 

Aside from EJKs, Nagkaisa! is also alarmed at the resurgence of other forms of human rights violations.  

Last October,  Antonio Cuizon, president of the Panaghiusa sa Mamumuo sa Carmen Copper, was arrested on trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.  The union and the management were then in the thick of labor dispute when the case was file against Quizon.

 

But the most widespread of human rights violations, Nagkaisa! said, is the violation of labor’s right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

 

“The onslaught of state-sanctioned contractualization schemes have effectively disarmed workers of their ability to defend themselves, through their unions, against many forms of abuse and exploitation,” concluded Magtubo.

PNoy joins Filipinos in celebrating Bonifacio Day; militants say hero's struggle finds echoes today

Workers do last-minute sprucing up at the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan. The nation marked Sunday the 151st birth anniversary of the Father of the 1896 Philippine revolution. KRISKEN JONES, INTERAKSYON.COM

MANILA – President Benigno S. Aquino III joined the Filipino people in celebrating on Sunday the 151st birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines.

”Andres Bonifacio’s patriotism ignited the passion within our countrymen to fight for liberty and demand dignity, freedom, and sovereignty for the land of our ancestors,” the President said in a press statement on the Tondo, Manila-born man known as the father of the Philippine revolution of 1896.

”Now, 151 years after his birth, our history and identity, tested by the many challenges we have overcome, we unite as one nation to remember his sacrifice and desire to see us take charge of our destiny,” he added.

President Aquino said the country has become a dynamic and progressive hub of business and commerce, an achievement reached under the "tuwid na daan" (straight path) policy of his administration.

”It will continue to thrive as we fight to vanquish the culture of greed and corruption once rampant in our system as we renew our dedication to fostering integrity and accountability in our institutions,” the President said.

The President said he hopes Bonifacio will continue to inspire the Filipino people to aspire for a progressive country.

”We have created for ourselves the opportunity to fulfill the dreams Gat Andres envisioned for us. May this day renew the spirit of camaraderie in all of us and inspire us to aspire to greater heights of prosperity. Together, let us forge a path to a more inclusive future,” President Aquino said.

Born in Tondo, Manila on Nov. 30, 1863, Bonifacio is considered as the Father of the Philippine Revolution against Spanish colonization. He spearheaded the Katipunan movement in July 1892.

For leading the first revolutionary government against the Spaniards, some historians said Bonifacio should be the first president of the Philippines.

Bonifacio was executed for alleged treason in Maragondon, Cavite on May 10, 1897 by revolutionary men identified with the camp of Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo, who declared the Philippine independence from Spain in Kawit on June 12, 1898.

Thousands march to remember

In contrast to President Aquino's celebratory tone, thousands of people from various sectors marched toward Liwasang Bonifacio and Mendiola in Manila, calling the hero's birthday a national day of protest against President Aquino and his policies.

“Diwa ni Bonifacio, tunay na pagbabago! Panagutin si Aquino!” is the theme of the rally attended by various anti-Aquino groups and personalities.

“Today we reaffirm our commitment to continue Bonifacio’s unfinished revolution for national freedom and democracy. The people demand genuine change and freedom from foreign dictates, human rights abuses, feudal oppression and gross corruption,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

“If we are serious about the subject of change, then we say, Aquino must go. His regime has exacerbated all sorts of social problems such as pork barrel corruption and foreign military occupation. He continues to find new ways of keeping pork in the national budget. He continues to find ways to bring back US bases to our shores. The Aquino regime stands in stark opposition to change,” Reyes added.

The group also condemned the arrest of the secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Antonio Flores, during a protest action Saturday (Nov. 29) in front of Aquino’s house in Quezon City. Flores was detained at Camp Caringal in QC and faces several charges according to police.

Leaders of the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan wore katipunero costumes as they marched from the Espana Avenue to Liwasang Bonifacio where a program was organized.

“Aquino is more Aguinaldo rather than Bonifacio. He claims to be for change yet he defends the status quo. He has betrayed the people’s aspirations for genuine freedom and democracy. His daang matuwid is a sham,” Reyes said.

This year's Bonifacio Day Rally also falls on the 50th anniversary of the iconic youth group Kabataang Makabayan which fought the Marcos dictatorship during the 70's after it was forced underground. The KM still exists today as a member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

'Cha-cha, killing and jailing of unionists mark Bonifacio Day demands'

The Partido Manggagawa (PM) highlighted labor’s demand for a rejection of the charter change initiative of House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and the continuing repression of unions by capitalists and the government.

“On the very eve of Bonifacio Day, Rolando Pango, a labor organizer in Negros Occidental was abducted and then assassinated as he was on the way to meet sugar workers who will join today’s mass actions. Meanwhile in Toledo City in Cebu province, mine union president Tony Cuizon is in jail on trumped up charges. The arrest of Cuizon and murder of Pango are symptomatic of the repression suffered by workers fighting for their rights.” stated Wilson Fortaleza, PM spokesperson.

Marches are also being held today in the cities of Cebu, Bacolod and Davao in coordination with the main demonstration in Manila. In Manila, PM members are joining workers from other the labor groups comprising the labor coalition Nagkaisa in marching this morning from Welcome Rotunda to Mendiola for a program until noon.

“Workers oppose Belmonte’s economic cha-cha as it carries the same old agenda of giving foreign capital more flexibility and freedom in doing business in the country. While Congress makes an Christ,as rush to vote on the Charter change as demanded by imperialist Santas, it turns a deaf ear to workers demands for enabling laws to the living wage, security of tenure and full employment provisions of the Constitution,” stated Fortaleza.

Pango had assisted some 40 workers of Hacienda Salud in the town of Isabela in filing illegal dismissal and labor standards violations against landlord Manolette Lamatan, who heads the Negros planters association. Cuizon has been incarcerated for more than a month now after he was arrested on a warrant for illegal possession of firearms and explosives which his union claims was planted.

Anakpawis Partylist commemorated Bonifacio Day in a protest rally at Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila,joining various nationalist groups includingthe Manilalakbayan contingent composed of farmers and Lumad who came all the way from Mindanao.

“Bonifacio and the members of the Katipunan, the great majority of whom came from the ranks of the toiling masses, took concrete and collective action in the pursuit of a society free from the dictates of foreign power, decisively taking steps, in fact, to confiscate friar lands and haciendas in order tobe distributed to poor and landless farmers,” Anakpawis Partylist representative Fernando “Ka Pando” Hicap said.



Anakpawis said that Bonifacio was inspired by the social upheavals in the world during his time, particularly the liberaldemocratic European Revolutions of 1848, that overthrew the feudal rule of the aristocratic class and established sovereign democratic republics.

“Other countries have fulfilled the bourgeois-democratic prerequisite of land reform as early as the 19th centurywhich has subsequently made economic development possible, but our country has yet to satifisy such social requirement and has thus been inextricably caught in chronic political and economic crises,” Hicap said.

“If Bonifacio had the Spanish colonialists as his enemy, at present we are confronting US imperialism. Then there was the ilustrado class, now we have the Aquino regime. Spanish colonial rule, meant landlessness, land rent exaction, forced labor, massacre, murder, rape and others forms of exploitation and oppression that victimized our Filipino forebears, the very same ruinous conditions in fact that generally pervade in the 21st-century Philippine society,” Hicap said.

------
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
By: InterAksyon.com | Philippines News Agency
November 30, 2014 5:27 PM

Workers deplore lack of “Bonifacio-type” leaders

Hanap ng Manggagawa: Makamanggagawang Lider ng Bansa

With the 2016 elections occupying the air and time of most of the country’s politicians, the labor coalition Nagkaisa! today hit both the current administration and political wannabes, “for putting their personal political ambitions above the pressing demands of the working class.”

Nagkaisa!, the biggest labor coalition in the country today, led a march by thousands of workers from the Mabuhay Welcome Rotonda to the historic Mendiola Bridge, in commemoration of the 151st day of working class hero, Andres Bonifacio.

“Despite its open channels for communication with labor, we remain disappointed with this administration because the weight of anti-labor policies remain in full force. And this early we feel the same degree of apprehension seeing the possible 2016 line up, practically the same parties and personas,” said Nagkaisa! in a statement.

Marching under the theme, “Hanap ng manggagawa: Makamanggagawang lider ng bansa”, workers from different unions and labor organizations voiced out their indignation over the anti-labor policies that remain intact under the Aquino administration which include:

• the intensifying degree of contractualization,
• cheap labor,
• high cost of power and other goods and services, and
• the deepening inequality under the regime of jobless growth.

The group said the same problem will hound the 2016 candidates, adding that the more the working class are getting frustrated with the presumed failure of “tuwid na daan” the more they will be looking for better ones.

“Unfortunately we still don’t see ‘Bonifacio-type’ leaders from the present crop of politicians,” conceded Nagkaisa!

The group cited as example the way the foreign-backed economic cha-cha is winning the vote of the members of Congress (possibly before Christmas as announced by Speaker Belmonte) compared to the workers’ wage hike and security of tenure bills.

The group said when they say ‘Bonfacio-type’, they refer to men and women leaders who will commit themselves to the immediate and long-term agenda of the working class.

“They who can provide full protection to labor; say NO to the dictates of IMF-WB and foreign powers; dismantle political dynasty; stop corporate fraud; and provide quality public service to all our people,” stressed the group.

The group is preparing for direct actions next year. At the same time it will craft political strategies for effective electoral intervention come 2016.

Power crisis real, strategic but gov’t doing mere quick fix – labor coalition

The emerging power crisis is a cruel outcome of a bad policy under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) that cannot be resolved by the proposed emergency power President Aquino is seeking from Congress, the labor coalition Nagkaisa said in a statement.

The group said it is not common for ordinary workers to comment on techno-economic aspects of the power industry, but for this coming celebration of Bonifacio Day on November 30, labor will come out loud on this along with other big issues because the high cost of power in the country is making the lives of ordinary workers more miserable.

According to Wilson Fortaleza, spokesperson for Partido Manggagawa (PM) and one of the convenors of Nagkaisa, “this quick-fix solution via an emergency power to address a decade-old problems of escalating rates and diminishing supply reignited labor’s apprehension that once again, a power crisis is being transformed into business opportunity for the private sector.”

Fortaleza was referring to the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) and power contracting being pursued through a joint resolution in Congress that would grant the President emergency powers to address the expected power shortage in 2015.

He said the ILP can be pursued by the Department of Energy (DoE) even without the President exercising emergency powers because it is merely a demand-side management issue and not production of additional generating capacity as required under Section 71 of EPIRA.

"Likewise, the foreign and privately-operated National Grid Corporation must first be made to account for its primary responsibility to secure reliable supply, including sufficient reserve capacities," argued Fortaleza.

The group explained that the ILP is a mode for utilizing standby power or embedded generating capacity available in several establishments such as malls and commercial buildings. During shortage, their utilization means an x amount of freed megawatt capacity that can be supplied by Meralco to other users.

Fortaleza, however, said that for this alone an emergency power is not needed. So why is Malacanang asking for it? The group can only think of the following scenarios:

• Under the ILP enrollment is voluntary but enrollees will be compensated to incentivize their participation
• But because there is no system currently in place to exactly determine the price of compensation, imposing a universal levy – an x amount per kWh to be charged to consumers take-or-pay – is the most likely scheme.
• Retail electricity suppliers (RES) who already posses contracted capacities under the open access (but which they cannot supply to their contestable market because most of them are also ILP players) will also be compensated.

These, in effect, will result to rate increases. But Fortaleza insists that a take-or-pay levy cannot be charged to consumers under ILP since embedded generation sets were designed or were practically built by industry players to address expected and non-expected outages.

“So why do we have to pay them for that temporary sacrifice? And why will Henry Sy, John Gokongwei and Jaime Ayala charge an x amount per kWh from everyone, including non-mall users?”

The group argued further that the only valid excuse for utilizing emergency powers is when the government goes back to generation, stop industry fraud, and makes a decisive shift to renewable energy and energy democracy.

Peoples Action against the World Bank – Philippines

Manila – This WB safeguard review started almost 3 years ago, but communities and organizations in the Philippines barely understand its process and contents. And to our knowledge, this is the first actual official interaction with Philippine organizations. Yet, there has been too little time and lackluster effort to enable meaningful engagements. Meanwhile, Southern and Northern organizations expressed their struggles and frustrations with the dismal handling of the Bank of the safeguards review over the past 2 years. The WB meetings last Oct. 8-11, 2014 in Washington DC was a clear reflection of peoples’ deep resentment over the poor consultation and bad safeguards draft. And here is the Bank doing a repeat of the same failures in running effective consultations: you give us too short notice to prepare and incomplete documents to consult. No draft business procedures, no implementation plan, no translations.

The affected communities and their support groups demand that the WB safeguard policies must be strengthened to ensure real protections for people and the planet. The draft does not promise to deliver that.

We are concerned that right now, Filipinos are not overcoming poverty, inequality and hunger are increasing, our natural resources are threatened by industrialization and extractive industries while labor rights are diluted or informalized. Contrary to the Bank’s rosy narratives of Philippine growth linked with its financing, this growth is widening inequality. Bank financing has not helped in preventing the intensified privatization of commons and has contributed to the systematic dismantling of essential public services. It has been muted in dealing with the discrimination against marginalized groups such as PWDs, IPs, children, and sexual minorities who are the most vulnerable sectors. They have been threatened by projects that were partly-funded by the World Bank Group. Remember the Manila Sewerage Project? Remember Chico dam in Cordillera? Remember IFC’s support to a mining project in the ancestral domain of the Mamanwas in CARAGA? In many instances, safeguards were useful in ensuring some basic minimum levels of protection were available. But the Bank is moving to moving to eviscerate these basic human rights protections. You’re dumping people with more debts but you’re removing your environmental and human rights accountability.

We have watched with rising concern that your new “safeguard” proposals betray these expectations and represent the opposite. In this process, we believe that the World Bank is stepping back on its promise to reduce poverty.

Instead of ensuring protection of vulnerable communities and the project affected people, your draft proposes dismantling of even existing protections that have been built over decades of hard work, hard won protections that people have fought and died for here in the Philippines, including social justice laws for indigenous peoples, environment, land reform and people’s participation in governance.

We cannot remain mute spectators of this regressive journey and must convey to you the rising frustration and anger amongst the many communities that are facing these impacts from Bank-supported projects, and also within many people’s movements and supporting civil society groups, networks and alliances from all over the Philippines.

Our colleagues have watched with growing dismay – the increasingly insensitive responses to the passionate appeals by cornered and distressed communities affected by bank supported projects. I personally appealed that this consultation be re-scheduled to give time for communities and organizations to understand better the process and substance of the safeguards, but my appeal was rejected.

We are also alarmed by the rising talk of the Bank venturing into riskier investments, coming from as high positions as the WB President! Hundreds of indigenous peoples and forest dwellers organizations are terribly concerned with the proposed ‘opt out’ clause, and the dilution of protection hitherto given to biodiversity rich and protected areas. You also propose to venture into uncharted territory of biodiversity offsets! These are gambles more suited to a venture capital fund, not fit for a “Development Bank”, and the Filipinos cannot allow this to happen.

We, the dozens of people’s movements and organizations present here from all over the Philippines, and the many thousands we represent back from our communities, are rejecting this current draft of safeguards. The protections you now seek to dismantle, the safeguards that we fought for over decades – do not belong to you, they are not yours to throw away, they belong to the world and its vulnerable people.

We are also aware of a handful of saner voices from within the bank, and urge them to fight inside the system, for protecting the very rights they themselves enjoy – also for the people and communities around the world facing potential threats from this proposed dilution of protections. We strongly believe this protest action that we are compelled to take, will strengthen those voices and create a better environment for creating a really progressive safeguards policy. This will be in the interest of the bank itself, as well as for the entire Philippines, and the rest of the world.

That is why we are forced to take this action now and join our partners in the protest outside. Today we are going out of this consultation, to defend the safeguards and to stand with the World and against the Bank that is trying to destroy it! We sincerely hope that this will help a better tomorrow, within & outside.

===================
Signatories:
AKBAYAN
Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA)
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)
Bank Information Center (BIC)
DANGAL
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
NAGKAISA
NGO Forum on the ADB
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ)
SANLAKAS

Labor groups demand Petilla’s resignation

DOE Sec. Petilla, pinagbibitiw sa puwesto ng ilang labor group
GMA News Video

Related Article: Labor group wants Petilla’s head for deceiving the Filipino people bigtime over so-called power crisis

Labor group wants Petilla’s head for deceiving the Filipino people bigtime over so-called power crisis

A COALITION of 49 labor groups and workers’ organizations called Nagkaisa is demanding President Aquino to immediately fire Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla for deceiving the Filipino people with his manufactured power shortage scenario hitting the entire island of Luzon early 2015.

Officials of the Department of Energy admitted during a congressional hearing that the projected deficit in supply for the coming summer of 2015 is only about 21 to 31 MW, a far cry from the 1,200 MW shortfall trumpeted by Petilla.

“It is now very clear to us that Secretary Petilla took the country for a ride. He bluffed the president, the cabinet, the senators and the congressmen, the business sectors, the labor and consumer groups with his tall tales of thin power reserves to justify emergency powers that entails possible purchase of multi-billion peso generator sets. Mr. Petilla deliberately exposed the country to unnecessary jeopardy that has been discouraging job-creating investments away since he came out with his bogus story in July,” Josua Mata of Sentro-Nagkaisa, one of Nagkaisa convenors said reading Nagkaisa statement.

“This is a grave crime to the Filipino people. The only way for Secretary Petilla to redeem himself, after having been rebuffed by congressmen for his exaggerated numbers on the alleged looming power crisis, is to apologize to the people and submit an irrevocable resignation. If he doesn’t have the delicadeza to do so, we are demanding his head from the president. Either way, the Filipino people does not deserve a reprehensible nincompoop in government,” he added.

“Instead of asking congress to hastily grant him emergency powers, President Aquino should first kick his energy man out for his failure to lead a critical department of the executive,” Wilson Fortaleza, spokesperson of Partido Manggagawa-Nagkaisa.

Fortaleza said Petilla’s main blunder is the absence of policy intervention and the heap of unsound options in addressing the looming power crisis.

Petilla has proposed costly lease agreements from independent power producers to fill up the capacity gap in two years. Another option was to top existing capacities from industries’ embedded generator sets under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP).

“Petilla must go not because power emergency is none existent but also because policy intervention is absent. The president must fire him for deceiving the entire nation including himself as the chief executive and his fellow members of the cabinet,” added Fortaleza.

Another convenor, Louie Corral, executive director of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagakisa, explained that had the government acted as early as 2011, we could have started building new capacities by building new power plants; forced private power to rationalize their scheduled maintenance shutdowns; optimize the use of every plant especially hydro; and exercised strong regulatory powers to prevent market fraud.

Yet these options, Fortaleza said, can still be utilized right now as these powers are present under DOE’s mandate, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Office of the President, and Congress under the Joint Congresional Power Commission (JCPC).

“The only time we will support emergency powers is when the government finally decides to take over the whole industry with the utmost objectives of bringing down the price and securing a sustainable power supply not only for present needs but also for the next generations to come,” concluded Corral.

The Nagkaisa is a coalition of labor unions and workers’ organizations who band together three years ago to advance security of tenure, reduce the price of electricity, empower public sector workers and improve workers living wage. The members of the coalition are the Alliance of Free Workers (AFW) All Filipino Workers Confederation (AFWC), Automobile Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA), Alab Katipunan, Association of Genuine Labor Organizations (AGLO), Associated Labor Unions (ALU), Associated Labor Unions- Association of Professional Supervisory Officers Technical Employees Union (ALU-APSOTEU), ALU-Metal, Associated Labor Unions-Philippine Seafarers’Union (ALU-PSU), ALU-Textile, ALU-Transport, Associated Labor Unions-Visayas Mindanao Confederation of Trade Unions (ALU-VIMCOMTU), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Association of Trade Unions (ATU), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Confederation of Independent Unions (CIU), Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services (CLASS), Construction Workers Solidarity (CWS), Federation of Coca-Cola Unions (FCCU), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Kapisanan ng Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO), Katipunan, Pambansang Kilusan ng Paggawa (KILUSAN), Kapisanan ng mga Kawani sa Koreo sa Pilipinas (KKKP), Labor education and Research Network (LEARN), League of Independent Bank Organizations (LIBO), Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN), MARINO, National Association of Broadcast Unions (NABU), National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Mines and Allied Workers Union (NAMAWU), National Association of Trade Unions (NATU), National Confederation of Labor (NCL), National Confederation of Transport Union (NCTU), National Union of Portworkers in the Philippines (NUPP), National Union of Workers in Hotel, Restaurant and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN), Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), Pepsi Cola Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA), Pinag-isang Tinig at Lakas ng Anakpawis (PIGLAS), Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union (PILLU), Philippine Independent Public Sector Employees Association (PIPSEA), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Philippine Transport and General Workers Organization (PTGWO), SALIGAN, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), Workers Solidarity Network (WSN)

WORLD DAY OF DECENT WORK | Workers picket manning agency for labor lawviolations

Rally outside the Asiapro office in Pasig City, 7 October 2014. PHOTO COURTESY OF NAGKAISA

MANILA - To mark the World Day of Decent Work today, members of labor coalition Nagkaisa (United) on Tuesday picketed the Asiapro main office in Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig City to condemn the “pseudo” manning agency for gross violations of workers’ rights.

In a statement, the coalition said that despite its name, Asiapro is not a multi-purpose cooperative.

“Asiapro is a grand structure of deceit and an organized syndicate with a multi-billion peso profiteering from the blood and sweat of hapless Filipino workers,” Nagkaisa said.

“The people running Asiapro are with pedigree, deeply-experienced and widely networked to camouflage and further entrench their labor-only-contracting fleecing operation. They are not just modern day labor slavery drivers, they are also rapacious and brutal not only for not giving the right wages and benefits for is workers but for skirting the laws and statutes by not paying millions of pesos of taxes that a responsible manning agency does to government,” it added without identifying the people behind Asiapro.

The coalition said it would try to uncover the Asiapro masterminds so that they can be held accountable “for their abuse and injustice committed against thousands of its workers and their families.”

- InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

Nagkaisa labor coalition declares war against “King of labor-only-contracting Asiapro” in today’s World Day of Decent Work

AROUND 200 members of labor coalition Nagkaisa picketed the Asiapro main office in Barangay Kapitolyo in Pasig City this morning to condemn the pseudo-manning agency for its gross violations of workers’ rights to mark the World Day of Decent Work observed worldwide today.

Below is the Nagkaisa labor coalition statement issued today:

“We, the Nagkaisa! (United!), join arms in condemning in highest and strongest terms the illegal practice being perpetrated by the Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative against thousands of vulnerable Filipino workers in its employ as we commemorate today the World Day of Decent Work along with other labor unions and progressive labor groups around the world.

We are enraged by Asiapro’s unfettered and multiple grave violations of international conventions on decent jobs and serious abuse of Philippine labor statutes that upholds the rights and interests of Filipino workers.
Behind its mask and by its pretense as a multi-purpose cooperative, Asiapro is a grand structure of deceit and an organized syndicate with a multi-billion peso profiteering from the blood and sweat of hapless Filipino workers.

The people running Asiapro are with pedigree, deeply-experienced and widely networked to camouflaged and further entrenched their labor-only-contracting fleecing operation. They are not just modern day labor slavery drivers, they are also rapacious and brutal not only for not giving the right wages and benefits for is workers but for skirting the laws and statutes by not paying millions of pesos of taxes that a responsible manning agency does to government.

As we join fellow workers in fighting for decent work, the Nagkaisa labor coalition today vows to make life difficult for Asiapro and promises to make its greedy high people running the organization be brought to justice.

In observance of the World Day of Decent Work, Nagkaisa today swears to uncover the Asiapro masterminds and make sure they will be made to account including all of the conspirators of the syndicate to pay for their abuse and injustice they have committed against thousands of its workers and their families.”

Mabuhay ang Nagkaisa!
Long live Nagkaisa!
Together, let us bring Asiapro to justice!

NAGKAISA pickets Chinese embassy; backs HK’s general strike, prodemocracy protests

NAGKAISA members rallied today in front of the Chinese embassy’s consular section in Makati City to air their support to the general strike of Hong Kong’s trade unions and the week-old massive pro-democracy protests rocking this prosperous semiautonomous city of China.

Part of the worldwide network backing the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, the NAGKAISA leaders blasted China for its “dogmatic refusal” to respect the Hong Kong citizens’ right to universal suffrage or the right to vote and be voted, as well as its role in the violent attempt to disperse the protesters last Sunday.

Rally leaders said that the uncalled-for police assault using tear gas and pepper spray against a peaceful protest, where at least 59 were injured and 89 arrested, has in fact backfired on the authorities as it prompted more people to join the demonstrations – initially led by the Hong Kong Federation of Students – who now swelled to tens of thousands under the banner of the broad Occupy Central movement.

The Sept. 28 dispersal also prodded the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) to call for a general strike on Oct. 1 coinciding with the 65th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Heeding HKCTU’s call were trade union members from the ranks of teachers, dockers, beverage employees and from other industries as this Hong Kong’s largest labor center stated that “to defend democracy and justice, (the workers) cannot let the students fight the suppression alone.”

NAGKAISA also lauded HKCTU as actually the “backbone of the multisectoral democracy movement in Hong Kong” even before the former British colonial ruler handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

NAGKAISA activists handed the consular office a letter* urging the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities “to respect the right of the Hong Kong protesters to peaceably assemble and to raise their grievances and democratic demands, and to refrain from resorting to violent and other retaliatory measures.”

They also warned that “ruthless repression à la Tiananmen Square in 1989 will have tremendous global repercussions to China and will no longer be tolerated and ignored by the international community.”

Included in the letter was the demand of the Hong Kong protesters for Leung Chun-ying to step down as the city’s chief executive “for his dismal leadership and for his role in the violent suppression of dissent and prodemocracy protests.”

The protesters revealed that part of the deal in the 1997 handover was that Hong Kong citizens would be allowed to vote for their leader – called chief executive – in 2017; but China’s government reneged on its promise when it declared last August that only those vetted by Beijing would be allowed to become “candidates” in the election.

“It would be another form of a sham ‘election’ like the current system where the chief executive is ‘elected’ by a 1,200-person ‘committee’ filled with Beijing sycophants and lackeys, thus, both are downright undemocratic and elitist,” NAGKAISA said in its letter.

NAGKAISA reiterated that universal suffrage and other basic democratic rights are not incompatible with an autonomous or Special Administrative Region (SAR) setup like in Hong Kong.

“They will even bolster the ‘one country, two systems’ model for the post-British Hong Kong that China supposedly adheres to, and will eventually benefit Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as the rest of the world,” NAGKAISA leaders declared.

—————————————————————-

3 October 2014

*HIS EXCELLENCY ZHAO JIANHUA
Ambassador to the Philippines
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
Makati City

Dear Mr. Ambassador:

We represent the general membership and leadership of NAGKAISA, the broadest labor coalition comprising 80% of all the organized workers in the country.

We are one with the people of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), Hong Kong’s top independent trade union center even before the territory’s handover from the UK to China.

Mr. Ambassador, allow us to freely express NAGKAISA’s utmost concern in the current social upheavals in Hong Kong, China’s foremost special administrative area. We respectfully urge the Chinese government as well as the Hong Kong authorities to respect the right of the protesters – who include our colleagues from the HKCTU and other Hong Kong-based NGOs – to peaceably assemble and to raise their grievances and democratic demands.

We condemn the violent measures taken by the Hong Kong Authority in its attempt to break the protest last Sunday. Using brute force against unarmed and peaceful protesters will have tremendous repercussions to Hong Kong – and China – and definitely will not be tolerated and ignored by the international community.

In particular, NAGKAISA wishes to present the following demands to the Chinese government and the Hong Kong administrators, through the Embassy of China here in Manila:

(1) End to the crackdown against peaceful assemblies and protest actions.

(2) Immediately release all arrested protesters and guarantee their basic human rights.

(3) Implement universal suffrage or the right to vote of Hong Kong citizens, including fielding and selecting their own chosen candidates in the election for Hong Kong leaders.

(4) Resignation of Chief Executive CY Leung for him to take responsibility for the violent and uncalled-for dispersal of student activists and other protesters last Sept. 28.

In the spirit of free and responsible exchange of even opposing ideas, thank you for giving us this opportunity.

Sincerely,

NAGKAISA Convenors

Nagkaisa Labor Coalition Demand Aquino to Fulfill Promises to Workers and Account for Workers’ Money Utilized in DAP

A coalition of 49 labor centers, federations and workers’ organizations to promote workers’ interest, the Nagkaisa today issued a statement to give labor groups’ perspective on the fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III tomorrow, Monday, July 28th. Below is the coalition’s pre-SONA statement:

“Millions of Filipino workers and their families remains deprived of the benefits of the inclusive growth they deserve from the so-called high Philippine economic growth they helped built since 2010. It is shameful that the President in Benigno Simeon Aquino III they elected in power four years ago, has tactfully failed them.

With around 700 days left in office, there are bold indications that the man in Pnoythey thought could lead them out of vicious pit of poverty and help them cope with the rising prices of commodities caused by a liberalizing economy is, in fact, slowly abandoning the hope of the working people.

Siding with employers’ interest, President Aquino deliberately refused to break the cycle of poverty by freeing up a large segment of 25 million contractual workers when he turned down outright the Nagkaisa plead to certify the pending Security of Tenure (SOT) bill designed to responsibly eliminate the very backward contractualization work scheme imposed by the business elites.

Aquino is just staring at workers being mangled by a very exorbitant and world class electricity rates controlled by a monopsony cartel of a very few families despite persistent advice from Nagkaisa to act, form and lead a multi-agency, multi-sectoral task force that will figure out within two-year period a secure power supply and a competitive electricity rate.

The stakes just get higher with the ominous crisis in power supply.The hiatus is so real that it would reckon businesses to make significant retrenchments of workers and render the country uncompetitive and unattractive to investments that are necessary to create more new jobs.

The absence of a national strategic plan on power will surely force the state to make knee-jerk but expensive fixes that, in the end, workers, especially minimum wage earners, would have to pay more from their take home pay—reminiscent of the same blunder committed by his mother the late President Cory Aquino.
Aquino is doing nothing while watching workers profusely bleed from the day-to-day stab of recent man-made and phenomenal sudden price increase of rice, garlic and ginger.

Without any significant increase in wages amid hikes in prices and costs of other basic commodities and services during his tenure, he has, in fact,coldly insulted the workers by issuing an executive order that would raise by P10,000 the disability and burial benefits of workers the moment concerned government agencies accrue excess funds.

He has reneged on his promise to “get back” a month later with presidential response on important laborp olicy issues raised by Nagkaisa labor leaders he invited to a pre-labor day breakfast dialogue inside Malacanang Palace on April 30th.

In the light of the controversial discovery of the Disbursement Allocation Program DAP), Mr. Aquino and cohorts should account for every single centavo in the billions of pesos of workers’ money in the scheme.The Nagkaisa demand Mr. Aquino to prove that the people’s money was not siphoned off to ghost projects and illusory expenditures as payoff for political patronage.

Mr. Aquino has squandered all opportunities to make a difference in the lives of workers especially those of the rank-and-file. He has failed to commiserate with the warm bodies that broke their back in earning a living while building the economy. The Nagkaisa has performed its critical part in bringing the case to the table. Now, it cannot entirely put the blame on workers who will claim their piece of social justice on the streets.

Labor Coalition Nagkaisa Chides PNoy: Hindi Tuwid, Hindi Tama, Hindi Makatuwiran Kapag Pag-unlad ay Para sa Iilan Lamang!

 

Labor coalition Nagkaisa chided President Benigno Simeon Aquino III
for continuing to dishonor workers on Labor day by failing to respond
to important issues raised by labor representatives during the
non-ceremonial pre-labor day dialogue in Malacanang the other day.

"President Aquino continues to ignore for four years the issues which
we believe would help impact the plight of the working people. Workers
are feeling deprived of the benefits due them despite of their great
contribution to improving economy," the Nagkaisa said in a statement.

"Since assuming presidency in 2010, Mr. Aquino is always being
remembered by workers in every Labor day memorial as a leader who has
abandoned and failed them at the critical moment when they needed his
leadership in view of growing joblessness, rising cost of living,
rampant and unfettered precarious work arrangement, high cost of
electricity rate and by conceding social protection services to greedy
capitalists," they added.

"Hindi tuwid, hindi tama, hindi makatuwiran kung pag-unlad ay para sa
iilan lamang (it is not straight, it is not right, it is unjust if
growth is shared only by a few)," the group stressed as they plan to
muster 30,000 of their members march from Welcome Rotonda to Mendiola
in today's Labor day commemoration. The group will assemble along
Espana at around 8a.m.

Aside from chastising Aquino, labor groups belonging to Nagkaisa also
lambasted Energy (DOE) Secretary Jericho Petilla and (BIR) Bureau of
Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares for failing to offer
government solutions to pressing long-standing workers' issues raised
by Nagkaisa (United) during the yearly Labor day dialogue with
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III held the other day.

The group also tagged the duo as "the weak link that help makes Aquino
appear out-of-touch, out-of-tune and widely disconnected with workers'
issues raised by Nagkaisa in the past four years."

"Out of the several cabinet secretaries who responded to the issues
that Nagkaisa raised, it was Ms. Henares and Mr. Petilla who appears
to be badly serving the president by refusing to offer solutions to
the high cost of electricity and tax issues as a way and means of
non-wage economic relief to workers in view of not benefitting from
despite of significant contribution to make the economy performed
excellently in the past years," the Nagkaisa said in a statement.

During the span of the two-year Nagkaisa dialogue with the executive
government, the alliance have demanded for Henares to provide tax
breaks to workers by way of taxing only the incremental amount of the
negotiated minimum wage of regular workers and expand the tax exempt
de minimis fringe benefits enjoyed by employees from their employers
as performance incentive.

"It is clear to us that Ms. Henares wants to meet her revenue quota by
making workers bleed in the sand, clearly ignoring the fact that these
workers are the backbone of the economy and were responsible for high
economic growth that she, the employers, and this administration are
flaunting about," the group said.

On the issue of the high cost of electricity, Nagkaisa have demanded
that to make the country attractive to investors that creates jobs a
Presidential Commission on Power must be created immediately.

"We proffered that the Commission to be made up of a national
multi-sectoral and multi-agency actors who will craft a 24-month
national strategy response that will craft a 24-month roadmap aimed at
lowering the cost and ensuring sufficiency of energy supply. That way,
a reduced electricity cost will make workers spend more on their food
and basic necessities at the same time invite foreign and local
investors put up more shops, offices and factories creating jobs for
the millions unemployed," the alliance said.

"However, it was clear to all that Mr. Petilla downgraded the proposal
to just create a task force under the auspices of the Department of
Energy (DOE) rather than a presidential commission is a signal that he
wants the Filipino people to be continued hostage by the monopsony of
a few powerful elites that controls the entire energy sector. Nagkaisa
condemns his arrogance and we will continue to hold him into account.
Nagkaisa will insist on the establishment of a commission."

On the issue of contractualization otherwise known as "555" or "endo",
a precarious scheme of employment arrangement, as the most important
issue that Nagkaisa raised in the dialogue, the group welcomed
Aquino's announcing his middle-ground response to this issue on May
28th.

Aside from eliminating contractualization scheme, lowering electricity
rates and providing tax breaks to workers, Nagkaisa welcomes the
response of Trade and industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, Justice
Secretary Leila De Lima, Yolanda Rehab and Reconstruction czar
Secretary Panfilo Lacson for acceding to Nagkaisa demand for labor
sector to be included in the crafting of a jobs-led agro-industrial
plan, monitoring and evaluation of the prosecution of extra-judicial
killings of union organizers and journalists, and inclusion of
Nagkaisa representatives in the formulation and implementation of
Yolanda-hit reconstruction and rehabilitation strategies.

Nagkaisa also welcomes the assurance of Aquino to immediately ratify
the ILO convention 151— a convention concerning protection of the
right to organize and procedures for determining conditions for
employment in government service.

The group also awaits Aquino's unequivocal policy statements in the
next dialogue on the issue of revision in the EPIRA law, providing
affordable in-city housing program, non-violent transfer of urban poor
communities in danger zones, appointment of a workers' sector
representative in the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and approve
into law the Freedom of Information bill.


ABOUT NAGKAISA




Launched on April 2012, the Nagkaisa is the biggest alliance of labor
groups and workers organizations in modern history of trade union
movement in the country. It is composed by the Alliance of Free
Workers (AFW) , All Filipino Workers Confederation (AFWC), Automobile
Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA), Alab Katipunan, Association of
Genuine Labor Organizations (AGLO), Associated Labor Unions (ALU),
Associated Labor Unions- Association of Professional Supervisory
Officers Technical Employees Union (ALU-APSOTEU), ALU-Metal,
Associated Labor Unions-Philippine Seafarers'Union (ALU-PSU),
ALU-Textile, ALU-Transport, Associated Labor Unions-Visayas Mindanao
Confederation of Trade Unions (ALU-VIMCOMTU), Alliance of Progressive
Labor (APL), Association of Trade Unions (ATU), Bukluran ng
Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Confederation of Independent Unions
(CIU), Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services (CLASS),
Construction Workers Solidarity (CWS), Federation of Coca-Cola Unions
(FCCU), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Kapisanan ng Maralitang
Obrero (KAMAO), Katipunan, Pambansang Kilusan ng Paggawa (KILUSAN),
Kapisanan ng mga Kawani sa Koreo sa Pilipinas (KKKP), Labor education
and Research Network (LEARN), League of Independent Bank
Organizations (LIBO), Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan
(MAKABAYAN), MARINO, National Association of Broadcast Unions (NABU),
National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Mines and Allied
Workers Union (NAMAWU), National Association of Trade Unions (NATU),
National Confederation of Labor (NCL), National Confederation of
Transport Union (NCTU), National Union of Portworkers in the
Philippines (NUPP), National Union of Workers in Hotel, Restaurant and
Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN), Philippine Airlines Employees
Association (PALEA), Pepsi Cola Employees Union of the Philippines
(PEUP), Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA),
Pinag-isang Tinig at Lakas ng Anakpawis (PIGLAS), Philippine
Integrated Industries Labor Union (PILLU), Philippine Independent
Public Sector Employees Association (PIPSEA), Partido Manggagawa (PM),
Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA), Public Services Labor
Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Philippine Transport and General
Workers Organization (PTGWO), SALIGAN, Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines (TUCP), Workers Solidarity Network (WSN).

Labor groups demand clamp down on manpower coops -NAGKAISA

After mounting a successful resistance against the outsourcing program at Philippine Airlines (PAL), labor groups under the Nagkaisa coalition now turn their ire against the operations of manpower cooperatives that purposely serve outsourcing needs of many companies.

Few days before the celebration of Labor Day, Nagkaisa called on the government to clamp down on manpower cooperatives particularly those that were actively involved in labor-only-contracting and non-compliance to labor standards.

In a protest rally held Friday at the offices of the Asiapro Cooperative in Pasig City, Nagkaisa members lambasted the manpower agency for hiding under the cloak of cooperativism to satisfy corporations’ callous demand for contractual labor. They also accused Asiapro of active involvement in anti-union activities.
Joining the action were members of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), SENTRO, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), and the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA).

Asiapro prides itself to be the first and biggest manpower cooperative in the country, with 34,000 of its members, deployed to several dozen companies nationwide.

“Cooperativism is akin to unionism hence we cannot, in principle, go against the concept of cooperativism. However, the relationship is becoming adversarial when a cooperative transforms itself into a conscious instrument for undermining labor rights,” said Wilson Fortaleza, Partido ng Manggagawa spokesperson and Nagkaisa convenor.

The case of Asiapro, he said, reveals the kind of anti-labor practices many manpower cooperatives are involved — principally as suppliers of contractual workers and consequently as in-house violator of labor rights of its member/employees such as non-payment of wages and other mandatory benefits such as SSS.
Asiapro usually invokes its cooperative nature to evade compliance to labor laws. Its executives made this admission during the public hearings conducted by the Provincial Board of Bukidnon in 2010 and in its many pleadings before the courts. Asiapro is Bukidnon’s biggest contractual labor supplier, with 5,000 of its workers deployed in the province’s banana and pineapple plantations.

The Supreme Court, however, ruled in G.R. No. 172101, the existence of employer-employee relationship between Asiapro and its associate members therefore it must comply with core labor standards and other labor-related laws.

But Asiapro seems undeterred by this ruling, perhaps because of a strong backing from former labor secretary Benny Laguesma. Last March, Asiapro was able to stop, through a TRO, a union certification election in Galeo Equipment and Mining Company, a contractor that hauls mine waste from the open pit mining site at the Carmen Copper mine in Toledo City.

A total of 285 Galeo workers had already voted by the time balloting was stopped. Another 275 Galeo workers were unable to cast ballots and were disenfranchised due to the TRO.

The election dispute arose from an attempt by the Asiapro manpower cooperative to prevent the unionization efforts at Galeo. Asiapro is claiming that the Galeo workers are their members and thus exempt from unionization. Galeo workers did not even know that they were members of Asiapro.

Nagkaisa had been pushing for the passage of the security of tenure bill in Congress to deter the plague of contractualization in the country. President Aquino, however, did not certify the bill as urgent.