Labor group backs BBL amendment

MANILA, Philippines - The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) said workers in the Bangsamoro region under the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) are in dire need of additional protection in law amid threats to their security of tenure.

The labor group joined the growing clamor for the revision of the BBL, pointing out the need to protect the workers under the proposed autonomous region.

PM chairman Renato Magtubo said the amendments in the BBL should include provisions guaranteeing all the fundamental rights of workers to self-organization, collective bargaining, as well right to strike.

According to Magtubo, making labor rights subject to laws to be enacted by the Bangsamoro parliament opens a loophole to diminish workers’ freedoms.

“This is a real threat since we know there is intense lobby from employers’ groups to degrade labor rights, among them security of tenure so as to promote contractualization in the Bangsamoro territory,” Magtubo pointed out.

He said the rights of workers, whether Muslim, Christian or indigenous people in the Bangsamoro territory, must be respected and enhanced.

“Capitalists, whether foreign or domestic, should not monopolize the benefits of the peace dividend on the backs of sacrificing the rights of workers, whether Moro, Christian or indigenous,” Magtubo added.

Magtubo called on the government to recognize the rights of the Lumad and include provisions of the Indigenous People’s Rights Act into the BBL.

Indigenous peoples such as the Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan-Manobo and Erumanen ne Menuvu live in the areas to be absorbed in the Bangsamoro.

 Sen. Nancy Binay, for her part, called for a congressional inquiry into the Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program, a joint social protection agenda between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) aimed at improving lives affected by conflict in Muslim communities in Mindanao.

Binay said there were reports that the program was secretly being used by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Deles for the MILF rebels and their supporters without knowledge and coordination with local governments. – With Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez