Labor
groups were busy protesting on their day, but President Aquino
conveniently hied himself off to Tarlac, with the Palace claiming that
Aquino spent the morning of Labor Day to get some rest and for him to
recuperate from colds and his bout with coughing.
Aquino was said to
have traveled to Tarlac City Tuesday afternoon, immediately after his
dialog with labor group representatives in the Palace, to witness a job
fair in the area.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said this
rest day for Aquino is “an opportunity for him to rest. You know he is
suffering from coughs and colds, He is taking medications for them,”
adding that Aquino is is not trying to evade Labor Day protests in
Manila.
“Yesterday, after the event, then later , he also had an event . He
now has a chance to rest, So today is a good day for him to rest lang
before his event at 4 o’clock,” he said.
The President will have an event with the local community in Victoria, Tarlac this (Wednesday) afternoon.
Lacierda
also said the President spearheaded the Labor Day activities on Tuesday
based on the advice by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE)
and it was not the President’s decision for him to take a rest today.
The
labor department wanted the Labor Day activities on April 30 so as not
to crowd the labor groups’ activities for May 1, Lacierda said.
“But
this was suggested, I think if I’m not mistaken, weeks ago or a month
ago. You know how it is with the schedule of the President. Thats’
planned in advance,” he said.
Meanwhile, in celebration of the 127th
International Workers’ Day and its 110th year in the Philippines, a
militant labor group staged a nationwide protest condemning the rabidly
anti-worker and pro-capitalist regime of Aquino.
Aquino has again
rejected workers’ calls for a significant wage hike, the junking of
contractual employment and a stop to trade-union repression. He has
bragged about non-wage benefits and his government’s efforts at creating
jobs.
“The Aquino regime has been using the technicality that is the
one-year ban on hiking wages to try to obscure the fact that it is
insensitive toward the long-standing hunger and poverty being
experienced by the country’s workers,” an official statement said.
“We
condemn Aquino’s use of non-wage benefits, which come from workers’
taxes and premium contributions, to try to cover up his strong
opposition to a wage hike. Unlike a significant wage hike, non-wage
benefits will not directly and immediately give workers any relief from
the soaring prices of goods and services.”
“We condemn Aquino for
taking advantage of chronic unemployment to try to blackmail workers
into accepting starvation wages, contractual employment, and violations
of trade-union rights. The truth is that wages in the country have been
pressed down for too long yet jobs available to Filipinos remain
dismally scarce.”
The problem lies in the government’s refusal to
implement land reform and national industrialization and generate decent
employment through these policies. It has instead relied on foreign
investments to create jobs in the country, and has offered cheap and
repressed labor to attract foreign investors into the country statement
further.
On his third Labor Day and almost three years in office,
Aquino has thoroughly exposed himself as anti-worker and pro-capitalist.
His statements leading to this Labor Day are merely footnotes to his
already long record of implementing policies that are favorable to
capitalists, especially the big and foreign ones, and detrimental to
workers.
For almost three years, Aquino has consistently rejected
calls for a significant wage hike, is attempting to impose wage cuts and
wage freezes through the Two-Tiered Wage System, has legalized
contractual employment, and is continuing policies that are repressive
of workers’ right to unionize, collectively bargain and strike.
Today,
our protests against the anti-worker and pro-capitalist Aquino regime
will ignite. We vow to launch bigger protests in the coming weeks and
months in order to push forward our just demands for our wages, job
security and trade-union rights statement ended.
With Pat C. Santos and PNA
