Labor coalition rejects economic Cha-cha

CEBU, Philippines -  Militant groups yesterday called to reject the Charter change initiative of House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte for allegedly being pro-capitalist.

Members of the labor coalition, Nagkaisa, join the thousands of workers nationwide in commemorating the 151st birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio with a protest rally in Cebu.

Coalition members gathered in Colon Street at the downtown of Cebu City yesterday noon where a program was held.

Dennis Derige, spokesperson of the Partido Manggawa, said that workers are oppose to Belmonte’s economic Cha-cha because it carries with it the same old agenda of giving foreign capital more flexibility and freedom in doing business in the country.

“While Congress makes a Christmas rush to vote on the Cha-cha as demanded by imperialist Santas, it turns a deaf ear to workers’ demands for enabling laws to the living wage, security of tenure, and full employment provisions of the Constitution,” said Derige in a statement.

 Nagkaisa is also criticizing the anti-labor policies pursued or tolerated by the Aquino administration such as contractualization, cheap labor, high cost of power, and the deepening inequality created under the general condition of jobless growth.

The group vowed to mobilize workers in the campaign to fight the economic Cha-cha.

“The Bonifacio Day rally is the opening fire of the campaign to oppose Belmonte’s Cha-cha and the Christmas holidays will not dampen workers resolve to resist this new attempt to tear up the token nationalist provisions of the Constitution,” Derige said.

 Meanwhile, the League of Filipino Students and other youth groups such as  Anak-bayan, Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, and Kabataang Artista para sa Tunay Na Kalaayan staged a nationwide protest to call for the ouster of President Benigno Aquino III.

 “Our nation is fraught with oppression worse than what the Katipunan has suffered under the Spanish colonial rule. Living up to Bonifacio’s legacy, we chose to fight against Aquino administration, whose slavish loyalty to the United States induced the enforcement of the unequal Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement,” said LFS national spokesperson Charlotte Velasco in a statement.

“We continue Bonifacio’s unfinished revolution to end the rule of treacherous Aquino regime and make it accountable for its crimes. We fight to change to the system that only favors those who hold the power to control and dominate,” said Velasco.

LFS urged the Filipino youth to join the campaign to oust the Aquino administration and forward the fight for social justice and genuine freedom.  (FREEMAN)