Workers rally vs. constituent assembly on Independence Day

CEBU, Philippines - The Partido ng Manggagawa commemorated Independence Day yesterday by conducting a noise barrage with factory workers from the Mactan Export Processing Zone and Lapu-Lapu City as labor-led protests against Constituent Assembly and Charter Change continue.

“We continue the struggle for freedom started by our forefathers by fighting against GMA’s desperate attempt to remain in power forever. Today the war for independence expresses itself as the fight against con-ass and cha-cha,” PM-Cebu chairman Greg Janginon said.

Members of PM marched from the Workers Development Center in Lapu-Lapu City to the city’s public market for the noise barrage.

The group then proceeded to Keppel Cebu Shipyard where workers remain locked in a labor dispute with management over retrenchments and alleged union-busting.

Roger Igot, president of Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Baradero, the union of Keppel workers said that changing the Constitution will pave the way not just for President Gloria Arroyo’s perpetuation in power but also the annihilation of the token protection for labor rights and national patrimony in the Constitution for the benefit of foreign capitalists.

Janginon said that the protests are in response to the Catholic Church’s call versus Con-Ass and are parallel to multi-sectoral movement against Charter Change.

“We call on the people to make noise today or else we will wake up tomorrow with Gloria Arroyo remaining in power as prime minister. Gloria Arroyo as a prime minister means the old dog returning with a new collar,” he further said.

PM-Cebu spokesman Dennis Derige said that the workers are calling for a system change not Charter Change.

PM likewise renewed its call for a workers bailout in the face of a fall in exports in April and the ballooning of the informal sector this year which the group claimed were signs of the recession.

The group is also calling for tax refunds, unemployment insurance and direct subsidies to displaced employees and poor people in to order to “put money in the hands of workers and the poor” and revive consumer demand. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP (THE FREEMAN)