Workers march for wage hikes

Workers across the country peacefully marched yesterday to demand for wage hikes, job security and other issues as the nation observes International Labor Day.

In Southern Mindano, at least 5,000 workers trooped to Davao City’s main thoroughfares demanding a P3,000 salary hike for government workers and a P125 across-the-board increase for other workers.

The protest march was participated in also by hundreds of banana plantation workers from as far as Compostela Valley in the north while bus-loads also came all the way from Davao del Sur.

Omar Bantayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Southern Mindanao secretary general, said the demand for wage increase should be addressed and employers should not merely resort to granting of additional allowances.

"It is sad that our workers continue to receive meager salaries not even enough for their subsistence," Bantayan said.

Protest marches were also held in Cagayan de Oro City and neighboring Iligan, calling for, among other things, President Arroyo’s resignation and to stop the proposed move to change the form of government.

"What we need is a change in the way of thinking of our leaders who are mostly corrupt and are working only for their personal interests," said lawyer Ver Quimco, president of the group called Call for Justice.

There were no reported incidence of violence related to the rallies held in Mindanao.

In the Bicol region, militant groups numbering about 2,970 held rallies and protest marches in six provinces denouncing Mrs. Arroyo and demanding the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law and the National Mining Act.

Chief Superintendent Victor Barbo Boco, Bicol police regional director, said that around 700 participated in the rally in Naga City, 300 in Legaspi City, 70 in Catanduanes, 1,500 in Masbate, 400 in Sorsogon, 30 in Camarines Norte.

There was a downpour in Legazpi City and Camarines Norte shortly before the rallies started. Besides wage issues, the rallyists in the region had also denounced the military for the murder of Camarines Norte’s Bayan Muna secretary general Jayson Aldwin Delen, 28, who was gunned down last Thursday.

In Central Luzon, some 1,000 workers from Clark and Bataan converged at the Dolores intersection in San Fernando City and called on the government to address the extra-judicial killings of two union leaders. They also complained of police harassment and the practice of tagging unions as communist fronts and expressed opposition to Charter change.

Rallyists in Bulacan, meanwhile, reiterated their call for the immediate ouster of Mrs. Arroyo. The rallyists, who belong to the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, KMU and other allied groups, said that the President’s claim that the economy is surging up is a hoax.

Hundreds of workers took to the streets also in Olongapo City to protest the "sorry state of labor in the region" and Charter change.

Emily Fajardo, spokesman of the militant group Makabayan in Central Luzon, said the protest rallies adopted the theme "Matatag na trabaho at makabubuhay na sahod, hindi Cha-cha (Secure jobs and decent wages, not Cha-cha)."

"Despite the Arroyo government’s declaration that Central Luzon is the next industrial and commercial hub, workers here are living the daily nightmare of earning below minimum wages and sorry working conditions. To top it off, the organized workforce or unions are being targeted by malicious communist tagging schemes and harassment of the police and the military," Fajardo said.

In Tarlac, workers inside the Hacienda Luisita and other militant groups joined joined the Labor Day protesters in Clarkfield.

Superintendent Rudy Lacadin, Tarlac City police, said the protesters took to the streets of F. Tañebo then headed for the Uniwide Warehouse Club along Ninoy Aquino Boulevard. After two hours, they packed up and boarded several vehicles bound for Clark. — Edith Regalado, Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu, Lino dela Cruz, Len Espinosa, Celso Amo, Dino Balabo