Monday, October 18, 2021

Nagkaisa Opposes 13th Month Pay By Installment, backs DTI Loan without interest

The Nagkaisa labor coalition  sees no reason to defer or pay by installment the 13th month pay of the workers for this year as the government stands ready to support small businesses amid the CoVID 19 pandemic. 

"Pwede naman" installment basta fully paid before Dec 24. Other than that we will be transgressing the letter and spirit of the 13th month pay law.

We heard from the good DTI secretary that his department had already reached out to Small Business Corporation to develop a facility that will provide zero-interest loans to companies needing 13th month funding.

As early as last year, Nagkaisa also had called on
 DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III for the government to grant 13th month subsidy to some 1.5 million to 5 million workers in the small and micro enterprises (SMEs). 

Workers are more in distress, especially women workers in micro and small enterprises,  which were hit hardest by this pandemic. 

Nagkaisa agrees that the only way to ensure that the 13th month pay is enjoyed by all workers in all establishments is to give no interest loan or subsidy for SMEs.

Last year, Nagkaisa was able to formulate its own public employment agenda called the Unemployment Support and Work Assistance Guarantee (USWAG) that it submitted before DOLE last year and during the subsequent employment recovery meetings this year. USWAG is part of Nagkaisa’s more elaborate agenda called State of Labor and its Agenda on Recovery or SOLAR.


Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Nagkaisa welcomes the judgment of the court on the Olalia-Alay-ay double murder case




Let this be a warning to all human rights violators!

Nagkaisa welcomes the judgment of the court on the Olalia-Alay-ay double murder case.

The trial took too long but after 35 years of waiting the assailants were convicted this morning.

The Antipolo Regional Trial Court Branch 97 found three members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) guilty for the death of labor leader Rolando “Ka Lando” Olalia and his driver-unionist Leonor Alay-ay.

Olalia and his aide Alay-ay were abducted, tortured, and extra-judicially killed in 1986.

A social reformer reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” 

Though justice  takes a long time, it does happen if the determination of those who pursue it is strong and persistent.

Press Statement
Oct 12, 2021