BMP Statement of Solidarity with Kadamay Occupiers

STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH KADAMAY OCCUPIERS 

The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), a socialist workers’ organization, extends its solidarity to members of the urban poor who have dared to occupy public housing projects.

For the past several decades, the government has been remiss in its duty of guaranteeing quality, dignified housing for all. Workers have been producing tremendous amounts of wealth and spurring economic growth and yet, instead of ensuring that this wealth goes back to workers, the government has been allowing capitalists, landlords and other favored groups sectors to gobble up this wealth by gutting or failing channel sufficient resources to social services.

Worse, it has even helped some of the country’s richest families and largest corporations to profit from people’s desperate need for these basic necessities by promoting the privatization or commercialization of housing, as well as health care, education and other services.

Moreover, the government has been promoting anti-worker policies such as contractualization which has made it even more difficult for so many Filipinos to afford not just the houses constructed by these developers (on land typically grabbed or withheld from the public or from peasants and smallholders) but even the limited and supposedly cheap housing projects offered by the government.

As a result, land developers and other conglomerates such as those of the Sys, the Ayalas, the Gokongweis, the Villars have raked in billions and live in fabulous mansions while millions of Filipinos have no roof over their heads or live in squalid slums.

It is therefore only right that the urban poor fight for quality public housing.

This is not “stealing” or “theft”: the ones who stole or who committed theft are those who took the wealth workers produced, thereby depriving them of the means by which to build their own dream houses for themselves.

Workers fighting for quality public housing are in fact trying to stop this theft by taking back what is rightfully theirs.

This is not “anarchy” or “lawlessness”: anarchy describes a situation in which the powerful violate the laws of justice and morality by using violence or the threat of violence to take what is not theirs—violence which has forced so many workers to reside in shanties and to live in conditions not fit for humans.

Workers demanding quality public housing are in fact trying to stop this anarchy and to build order by fighting for what they deserve.

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino stands with them and sees itself as part of their struggle. We denounce all those who vilify and denigrate urban poor communities fighting for social justice, and we will condemn any further act of violence against any of us.#

Karl Marx's Das Kapital published on 14 September 1867

Polyeto para sa Pebrero 25 - 1986 People Power Revolution

LABANAN ANG PASISMO!

ITAKWIL ANG ELITISTANG PAGHAHARI!

ISULONG ANG DEMOKRASYANG MASA!

Sa darating na Pebrero 25, ang manggagawa at masang anakpawis ay magmamartsa sa EDSA, kaisa ng sambayanang Pilipino hindi lang upang gunitain ang “1986 People Power Revolution” kundi para ibandera ang mga panawagang labanan ang pasismo, itakwil ang elitistang paghahari, at isulong ang demokrasyang masa.

LABANAN ANG PASISMO! Isang insulto para sa mamamayang nagpatalsik sa isang diktador noong 1986 ang umigting na pasistang atake sa mga karapatang pantao mula nang maluklok sa poder ang kasalukuyang rehimen.

• 7,000+ patay sa “War on Drugs”: Umakyat sa pagkapangulo si Rodrigo Duterte sa diskontento ng publiko laban sa iligal na droga. Nangakong lilipulin niya ang naturang salot sa loob lamang ng anim na buwan. Mabilis namang rumesponde ang pulisya. Ikinasa ang “Oplan Tokhang”. Pinayuhan din ang mga pulis na huwag nilang alalahanin ang anumang reklamo laban sa kanila basta’t gawin nila ang lahat ng dapat gawin laban sa mga gumagawa, nagtutulak at gumagamit ng shabu. Ang resulta: kaliwa’t kanang patayan! Nagigimbal sa takot ang taumbayan. Sinumang makakabangga ng abusadong pulis ay napakadaling tamnan ng droga, patayin, at lagyan ng karatulang “pusher, wag tularan”. Imomobilisa na rin ang AFP at mga paramilitary group gaya ng Alsa Masa sa gyera kontra droga.

Mahigit pitong-libo ang pinatay sa loob ng siyam na buwan! 26+ bangkay kada araw! Higit pa sa bilang ng mga pinaslang sa dalawang dekadang lagim ng diktadurang Marcos. Ang masahol, naganap ito sa termino ng isang pangulong tagahanga ng pinatalsik na diktador (kahit pa lumaban dito ang kanyang ina na si Nanay Soling).

• 12 aktibistang makakalikasan ang pinatay sa loob ng pitong buwan ng rehimeng Duterte. Umiigting ang laban ng mamamayan sa nakakasira’t nakakapaminsalang pagmimina. Ang pinakahuling biktima ay si Atty. Mia Manuelita Mascariñas-Green, na pinaslang sa Bohol noong Pebrero 15. 

• 9 ang pinatay sa tatlong linggo matapos maantala ang peace talks ng CPP-NPA-NDF at GRP. Karamihan sa kanila ay mga lider-magsasaka na pinaghihinalaan ng militar at mga grupong paramilitar na kasapi’t simpatisador ng kilusang Kaliwa. Asahang tataas ang bilang ng mga “political killings” sa pagdeklara ng all-out war laban sa mga rebelde (gaya ng “Total War Policy” ni Cory Aquino).

• Nakaambang panukala para ibalik ang death penalty. May limang panukala sa Senado para manumbalik ang parusang kamatayan (tatlo kay Sen. Pacquiao, tig-iisa sina Sen. Sotto, Sen. Lacson, at Sen. Gatchalian). May ganito ring panukala sa Batasan na pagbobotohan na para sa second reading sa Pebrero 28. May mga kongresistang nais alisin ang reyp at pandarambong (plunder) sa listahan ng mga krimen na may parusang kamatayan.

• Panukalang ibaba ang edad ukol sa responsibilidad sa krimen. Tinutulak ngayon sa kongreso ang panukala na ibaba ang edad ng mga maaring kasuhan ng krimen - mula 15 ay gawing 9 na taong gulang. Ito ay tahasang paglabag sa karapatan ng mga bata – na isa sa pinakabulnerableng sektor sa ating lipunan.

• Pagsuspindi sa writ of habeaus corpus. Matapos ang Davao bombing (Setyembre 2016), nagbabala si Duterte na maari niyang alisin ang writ of habeas corpus, ang ligal na proteksyon laban sa warrantless arrest at illegal detention.

Sa nagaganap na patayan dahil sa “War on Drugs”, naisasantabi ang nararapat na mga proseso para imbestigahan, litisin, at parusahan ang sinumang lumalabag sa batas. Ang mensahe sa taumbayan: huwag nang dumaan sa masalimuot na mga proseso ng batas sapagkat ang nasusunod ngayon ay kung sino ang may armas at may kapasidad na gumamit ng dahas!

Ang problema, paano ang milyon-milyong mga sibilyang walang mga armas? Paano nila haharapin ang pang-aabuso’t pang-aapi sa kanila, laluna ng mga may-kapital at may-kapangyarihan sa lipunan? Sa ilalim ng 1987 Constitution, na nasabatas matapos ang 1986 People Power revolution, nariyan ang mga batayan at prosesong ligal upang maipagtanggol ng taumbayan ang kanilang mga sarili. 

May “right to self-organization” para mag-unyon ang mga manggagawa. May karapatan sa “land reform” ang mga magsasaka. May karapatan sa “affordable mass housing” ang maralitang lungsod. May kalayaan para sa “peaceful assembly” ang taumbayan para igiit ang mga hinaing sa gobyerno. May “free speech” ang mga komentarista sa midya. May mga halal na institusyon, gaya ng senado’t kongreso, bagamat matapos magamit ang kanilang “right to vote” ay hindi na kasali ang mayorya ng mamamayan sa pagbabalangkas at pagpapatupad ng mga batas ng gobyerno. Iba’t ibang mga karapatang gumagarantiya sa sama-samang pagkilos at pagpapahayag upang ipagtanggol ng mamamayang Pilipino ang kanilang kalayaang mabuhay nang disente’t marangal.

Subalit lahat ng mga karapatang iyan ay bahagi ng mga karampatang prosesong itinatakda ng batas. Nasimulan na itong mabalewala sa kaliwa’t kanang patayan sa ngalan ng krusada laban sa droga. Ngayon, humaharap ang mga karapatang ito sa walang tigil na pasistang atake, na kung hindi maaampat ay tutungo sa ganap na pasismo – sa absolutismo ng isang diktadura, sa pagkalusaw ng mga halal na institusyon, sa lantarang pagkakait sa pagsapraktika ng batayang mga karapatan, at ang hayagang paghahari ng militar. 

Napapanahon sa anibersaryo ng EDSA 1986 para simulan ang pagkilos ng mamamayan laban sa mga pagtatangkang ibalik ang pasistang diktadura. Huwag hayaang ang mga karapatang pantao ay patay na letra lamang sa ating mga batas. Isabuhay natin ito sa kolektibong pakikibaka ng taumbayan laban sa pasismo! 

ITAKWIL ANG ELITISTANG PAGHAHARI! Ang manggagawa’t mamamayan ay kaisa sa paggunita sa EDSA 1986. Ngunit hindi para ipagbunyi ang naging resulta nito – ang elitistang demokrasya na humalili sa diktadurang Marcos. Walang napala ang taumbayan sa pinangangalandakang “panunumbalik ng demokrasya”, liban sa pagsasabatas ng ating mga karapatang nananatili sa papel ngunit hindi umiiral sa ating pang araw-araw na buhay.

 

Mula sa paghahari ni Cory hanggang kay Noynoy Aquino, dinanas ng taumbayan ang ibayong pahirap sa walang tigil na pagpapatupad ng gobyerno sa mga patakaran ng neoliberal na globalisasyon – ang liberalisasyon, deregulasyon, pribatisasyon at kontraktwalisasyon. Dumagsa ang dayuhang kalakal at kapital na puminsala sa ating lokal na industriya’t agrikultura. Pinagtubuan ng mga kapitalista ang dating mga sineserbisyo ng gobyerno sa kanyang mamamayan. Binaklas ang mga kontrol ng gobyerno sa pagtakbo ng negosyo. Inalis din ang pagreregular sa mga manggagawa na kanilang proteksyon laban sa ibayong pang-aabuso ng kanilang mga employer.

Ang popular na diskontento laban sa mga “elitista” ang siyang nagamit ni Digong sa kanyang kakaibang pagkapanalo sa eleksyon. Sinalamin ito ng kanyang elektoral na panawagang “Change is coming”. Ngunit magpasahanggang ngayon (siyam na buwan na sa poder) ay hindi malasap ng masang Pilipino ang ipinangakong pagbabago ni Rodrigo Duterte. Walang nagbago! Sapagkat hindi naman binago ang neoliberal na programang pang-ekonomya. Kaya’t monopolyado pa rin ng mga kapitalista’t asendero ang ekonomya’t pulitika ng bansa. 

Maging ang pangakong pipigilan ang kontraktwalisasyon ay natigilan! Wala pang kautusan – Department Order man ng DOLE, o Executive Order ng Malakanyang – ang nagbabawal sa paggamit ng mga kontraktwal para makaiwas ang mga employer sa mga benepisyong nararapat sa mga regular na empleyado. Pareho lang ang kinikilingang mga uri – ang mga kapitalista’t asendero. 

 

Nananawagan tayo sa sambayanan. Huwag tayong magpagamit bilang pambala ng kanyon sa dalawang paksyon ng mga elitista na naglalaban para sa estado poder. Matuto tayo sa aral ng EDSA 1 at EDSA 2. Mabibigo ang masa sa anumang pag-aalsa kung ang nakinabang lamang dito ay ang elitistang paksyong nais kunin ang poder sa ekstra-parlyamentaryong paraan, gamit ang lakas at dinamismo ng nagkakaisang mamamayan.

 

IPAGLABAN ANG DEMOKRASYANG MASA! Sa paggunita sa mga aral ng EDSA, tandaan natin ang istorikal na katotohanang “ang masa ang lumilikha ng kasaysayan”. Noong 1986, nagawa ng nagkakaisang mamamayan na magpatalsik ng diktador subalit tinalo sila sa maneobra ng mga elitistang anti-Marcos. Kung sa eleksyong 2016, itinakwil ng mamamayan ang paghahari ng mga “Dilaw” sa pamamagitan ng eleksyon. Sa harap ng pasistang atake sa mga karapatan ng malayang pag-oorganisa, pagsasama-sama, at pagkilos, makikita ng masa na walang pinag-iba ang rehimeng Digong sa nakaraang mga administrasyon. Itatatag nila ang tunay na demokrasya – ang ganap na paghahari ng kapasyahan ng mayorya. Ito ang aral ng EDSA para sa susunod na yugto ng ating kasaysayan. #

BUKLURAN NG MANGGAGAWANG PILIPINO - PARTIDO LAKAS NG MASA - SANLAKAS

Pebrero 2017

BMP Calendar 2017

sa lumang kalendaryo'y nakatunganga
bagong taon, bagong kalendaryo'y wala
hanggang sa aking maisipang lumikha
ng isang kalendaryong pangmanggagawa
kaya disenyong ito'y agad ginawa

- gregbituinjr.

To demand abolition of contractualization: Red Workers march from DOLE to Mendiola

PRESS RELEASE

December 15, 2016

Manggagawang Sosyalista (MASO)

Contact person: Leody de Guzman 09205200672

To demand abolition of contractualization:

Red Workers march from DOLE to Mendiola

HUNDREDS of workers from the socialist alliance Manggagawang Sosyalista (MASO), comprised of militant and anti-capitalist “Red unions” assembled today at the labor department offices in Intramuros, Manila before marching to Mendiola to press for the abolition of all forms of contractualization, not just the much-hated “endo or 5-5-5 employment scheme”.

Sec. Bello wants a Department of Labor and Employers

At the workers program in Intramuros, Lino Brin, MASO chairperson and president of the Pag-asa Steel union said, “The workers call on DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello to take the sides of the workers rather than adopt a flimsy seemingly neutral stance on the nefarious employment scheme that has led to a cheap and docile labor force”.

“The so-called win-win solution proposed by the trade department and echoed by Secretary Bello seeks to regularize workers at their contractors rather than to the principals who utilize contracting and subcontracting arrangements to replace regular employees with cheaper contractual workers,” he added.

Brin explained, “Bello should act, not just as the alter-ego of President Duterte who has promised to stop contractualization during the electoral campaign but as the representative of labor, which is recognized by the 1987 Constitution as the “primary social economic force” and should be granted „full protection by the State‟. He should leave the DTI Secretary to be the champion of investors. From the last time we check, the DOLE is not named “department of labor and employers”.

Abolition of Contractualization: A Promise Undelivered

At around noon, the workers proceeded to march to Mendiola via Quezon and Recto Avenues. At the march, MASO vice chair Ding Villasin of Socialista asserted, “President Duterte rode on the crest of the people‟s anger towards elitist democracy that was restored after EDSA 1986. Part of his electoral rhetoric was his harsh words against abusive employers who employ contractual workers in order to cheapen their labor costs. Yet, after several months in office, no stone was unturned. The abolition of contractualization remains an undelivered campaign promise.

She furthered, “If President Duterte was able to enact „freedom of information‟ for the Executive branch. We challenge him to abolish contractualization in the same branch, to which he has full control of, as Chief Executive. After all, the Philippine government remains as the country‟s number one employer of contractual workers”.

Nasaan ang Pagbabago?

At Mendiola, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) chair Leody de Guzman declared, “Before the year closes, we fear that both the DTI and DOLE will railroad the passage of the so-called win-win solution at both houses of the legislative.

“To inflict another wound to the already injured working class would transform the public sentiment, from that which passively seeks the change promised during the May elections to that of a labor-led independent movement of the people that would actively pursue social change and meaningful reforms, not from above but from below,” de Guzman concluded. #

Hundreds march to Malacanang to denounce lack of change under Duterte presidency

Hundreds march to Malacanang to denounce lack of change under Duterte presidency

Hundreds of workers, urban poor, students, and other activists belonging to Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Sanlakas, and Partido Lakas ng Masa today marched to the gates of Malacanang to denounce President Rodrigo Duterte’s failure to fulfill his promise to end “contractualization” and other anti-worker policies as well as his insistence on burying Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

They later joined thousands of other people who trooped to the People Power Monument in EDSA to condemn Marcos’ burial at the LNMB and block the restoration of declarations of martial law.

“We joined thousands of workers and other Filipinos today to remind the President that we are still here, that we have been waiting, and that we still haven’t experienced the change that he said will come if he gets elected as President,” Leody de Guzman, president of the socialist labor group BMP said. “It’s been six months since Duterte won and yet it seems that only the rich are again benefiting from the change in government,” de Guzman said.

Atty. Aaron Pedrosa, secretary-general of multi-sectoral group Sanlakas, for his part said: “Militant groups were encouraged by Duterte’s initial steps, such as his appointment of leftists in Cabinet, his support for FOI, and his critical stance towards the United States. But none of these has so far translated into any concrete benefits for the majority.

“So far, the President has yet to back his words with actions,” Sonny Melencio, chairperson of Partido Lakas ng Masa. “We marched today because we find it hard to identify actual measures that could assure us that change is indeed on the way.”

According to Melencio, more and more Filipinos are starting to question whether Duterte will indeed deliver his campaign promises, in particular, his promise to end contractualization, to provide dignified housing for the urban poor, to stamp out corruption in the bureaucracy, to give tax breaks for those earning below 30k/month, and to chart an independent foreign policy.

After marching to Malacanang, the militant groups joined a Caravan for Justice that drove through several cities in Metro Manila before heading to the People Power Monument to join tens of thousands of other Filipinos protesting against Marcos’ burial at the LNMB.

“It seems that there are only two groups of people that Duterte will never betray: the police and the Marcoses,” Melencio said. “But it seems that he is all too ready to turn his back on workers, on the urban poor, and on the Filipino people.”

For real change to happen, the group urged the public to take action and use their power to achieve significant social transformations.

“As Andres Bonifacio has demonstrated, hope lies not in our so-called leaders but in the Filipino people themselves,” de Guzman stressed.

Labor group dismayed with ‘win-win solution,’ demands decisive action

Labor group dismayed with ‘win-win solution,’ demands decisive action

Frustrated at the Labor department’s continued non-fulfillment of President Rodrigo Duterte‘s marching orders to abolish all forms of contractualization, socialist labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) has taken their advocacy to the footsteps of the president himself.

The group recently sent the Office of the President a letter, signed by labor leader Leody de Guzman, attached with a draft of an Executive Order ordering the abolition of all forms of contractual employment, among others.

In the letter to the president, it read “contractualization is an urgent national policy concern because it economically and socially destroys the lives of millions of our people—not only of our national labor force.”

It added that “due to its nationally-destructive outcome, contractualization is as criminal an enterprise as terrorism and the illegal drugs trade are at the present time.”

The group asked the President to “strongly consider the signing of this EO into law at the soonest time possible” to reflect his government’s “principled commitment to the stopping contractualization in all its forms.”

Pronouncements and proposals by secretaries Silvestre Bello and Ramon Lopez of the labor and trade departments respectively have not sat well with labor groups in the recently concluded consultative meetings it held. BMP along with other labor groups says that the ‘win-win solution’ is a misnomer and there can be no compromise with their demands.

“Our economic well-being as well as our dignity as the country’s ‘primary social economic force’ has been violated for decades now and yet the so-called ‘managers of the economy’ worry more about the projected decline in profits of employers,” said De Guzman.

“Any delays, flip-flopping statements and continued overconsideration for employers are new abrasions to labor’s dignity on top of the already heavily exploitative nature of capitalist-worker relations.”

The draft EO included the implementation and full protection of labor rights and standards as mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the strict prohibition of all forms of contractualization in the public and private sectors, the order to the Secretary of Justice to prosecute of violators and the regularization of all employees through direct-hiring.

The letter also included a recommendation for the president to schedule a meeting and dialogue with a broad delegation of labor groups to discuss labor policy-related issues and concerns at the soonest possible time. “This he owes to those who elected him into office,” De Guzman claimed.