Workers forming coalition for 2025 polls

MANILA, Philippines — A group of workers is actively negotiating with several political parties to form a coalition for the coming May 2025 midterm elections.

Newly elected Workers’ Party Philippines (WPP) president Sonny Matula said they are discussing with leaders of the Liberal Party and Bagumbayan for the formation of its senatorial slate.

“As a party focused on improving the rights and conditions of workers, expanding the middle class, and advocating for key labor reforms, the WPP recognizes that collaboration is essential to achieving its goals for the common good,” Matula said.

“To make real change, we need to ally ourselves with other parties that share our vision for uplifting Filipino workers and the marginalized. This is a collective effort,” he noted.

Matula, who also heads the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), intends to run in the senatorial elections.

The WPP is also considering its Muslim leaders in the south for inclusion in their senatorial, regional and local slates.

Around 100 trade union and party leaders attended the recent WPP Convention in Quezon City.

The Workers’ Party is poised to present a strong and united platform for the 2025 elections.

Old PCOS, VCMs for donation

Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is again offering to donate old precinct count optical scan (PCOS) and vote counting machines (VCM) to interested government agencies.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said it is renewing its offer to the Department of Education (DepEd) or Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to take custody of the old machines to save storage costs.

“The Comelec is very much willing to donate all of the 80,000 PCOS and 97,000 VCM machines to the DepEd or even to the PRC,” Garcia said in a recent press briefing.

“We are reiterating our offer, especially since the offer was made to the previous (DepEd) secretary. We want to make the same offer to the new DepEd secretary,” he added.

DepEd personnel under then secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte, Garcia said, have already inspected the PCOS and VCM units and were impressed at how the Comelec maintained their good condition.

Although they could no longer use them, Garcia noted that the Comelec needs to pay for the warehouse storage which occupies a big space.

The Comelec initially leased the PCOS from Smartmatic-TIM for P7.2 billion for the 2010 elections, and then purchased them at P1.8 billion for the May 2013 midterm polls.

For the May 2016 elections, the Comelec decided to lease the VCMs, which were later on purchased and used until the May 2022 elections.