Protesters hurl tomatoes at DTI and DOLE offices

CEBU - Hundreds of protesters yesterday threw rotten tomatoes at the office seals of the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry to symbolize their disgust and frustration over the alleged “failure of the offices to address the issues affecting workers and the poor”.

Evangeline Abejo, spokesperson of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino and chairperson of Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralita-Cebu, said that while pump prices continue to roll back, prices of basic goods remain high, accusing DTI of doing very little to bring down the prices of prime commodities.

She said that the daily struggle of lowly paid workers and the poor is for subsistence as government insensitivity further pushes them to mendicancy with DOLE’s alleged failure to produce a comprehensive contingency plan to cushion Filipino workers, locally and abroad, from the projected massive retrenchment seen as a result of the financial crisis.

Protesters from Sanlakas-Sugbo, BMP and KPML Cebu marched along the streets of Colon lambasting the Arroyo government for its alleged anti-poor, anti-worker measures to stave off an impending economic slowdown as a result of the global financial crisis.

Protesters conducted a protest march before the local offices of the DTI and the DOLE tagging said offices as “obviously pro-capitalist”.

“Workers have been clamoring for decent pay and job protection while poor families have been urging government to resolve the growing hunger and unemployment, but all these fall on deaf ears. We can no longer be beggars of a government that claims to be for the people,” Abejo said.

For his part, Jose Aaron Pedrosa Jr., spokesperson of Sanlakas-Sugbo, said that the onslaught of a global economic meltdown is inevitable.

However, instead of the present administration protecting the sectors seen to be worst hit - like the workers and the poor, it instead “readies itself to bail out banks and financial institutions which clearly shows its capitalist bias.”

Pedrosa explained that local export-oriented industries such as the furniture industry have already felt the brunt of the gathering economic storm.

He cited that the furniture industry in Mandaue City has begun laying-off workers as revealed by the DOLE amid government’s projection that 590,000 overseas Filipino workers out of eight million OFWs are at risk of losing their jobs.

To make matters worst, Abejo said that even scavengers of Cebu City have fallen prey due to the economic meltdown.

She cited that prices per kilo of junk materials such as metal have reduced from P12 per kilo to P3 per kilo and junk cartons are now priced at P1 per kilo against the previous P7.50 per kilo.

As an alternative, the group is not just calling for the ouster of President Arroyo and the scrapping of the value added tax but is urging for a total overhaul of the system through the establishment of a government of the people with a strong socialist alternative.

The protest march culminated at the Malacañang sa Sugbu where a short program was held. –