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.

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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.