PM urges Senate to start hearing bailout proposals

CEBU, Philippines - Militant group Partido ng Manggagawa is urging Senate to start hearing the proposals for a bailout for the working class before the body ends its session on June 3.

PM spokesperson Renato Magtubo said labor groups representatives will also lobby for Senate to start hearing the bailout resolutions filed separately by Senators Manuel Villar, Francis Escudero and Jinggoy Estrada.

“The effort for a Senate resolution on a “workers bailout” is part of a campaign for immediate and medium-term response to the impact of the global economic crisis,” Magtubo said.

Magtubo said a bailout for workers “is an urgent necessity despite the media spin being peddled by government about an economic recovery.”

He said a survey of the Social Weather Station reveals an unemployment rate of 34 percent, belying the government’s claim that only 7.7 percent are jobless in the Philippines.

“We challenge government to name names and identify the firms that have rehired their displaced workers for we know of no factory at the export zones that have taken back even a substantial portion of their retrenched employees,” Magtubo said. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO (THE FREEMAN)