“This year’s observance of the IYD would be grossly inadequate unless it takes on the scourge of contractualization,” Marco Gojol, APL-Youth spokesperson, said, adding: “Now is the time to raise the collective voice of the youth against this pernicious tactic of unscrupulous employers.”

“Our action today should serve as a warning not just to McDonald’s but to all companies that are abusing workers through contractualization,” Gojol declared, as he informed that APL-Youth pickets will simultaneously be held in selected branches of McDonald’s in Metro Manila, Batangas, Cavite, Cebu, General Santos and Davao.

APL-Youth points to the corporate strategy of deliberate and unbridled contractualization as a major factor to the serious employment problem, including the youth sector, specifically those aged 15 to 24 years old, who, last April alone, already comprised over half (51.1 percent or 1.6 million) of the total 3.09 million unemployed workforce in the country.

Though still conservative, official data also confirm that the youth unemployment rate at 18.8 percent in the same period was already way beyond the national average of 8.0 percent.
The young activists slammed contractualization as a harmful and unjust practice that primarily benefits only the capitalist elites while most of the working people, including the working youth, are doomed to a “job” devoid of security, decent wages and other benefits, and where many labor and trade union rights are withheld.

Gojol emphatically described contractualization as killing the youth’s “chance to live and hope for a decent life and future.”

Contractualization is actually so pervasive not just in McDonald’s and other fastfood businesses but also in almost all types of industries, especially in the burgeoning services sectors of hotels, restaurants and in the business process outsourcing, particularly the call centers, where the 500,000 mostly young Filipinos currently employed here are the world’s second biggest BPO workforce behind India.

But while a study of the International Labor Organization released last month said that Filipino BPO workers “earn 53 percent more than same-age workers in other industries,” it also revealed that one in three workers resign every year due to extreme pressures from “odd (work) hours, irate clients, tedious workloads and (heavy) performance demand.”

A study in 2000 by a leading international research NGO using Philippine government data also showed that the “combined share of casual, contractual and part-time workers in total enterprise-based employment” had increased from 14 to 15 percent in 1990-94 to 18.1 percent in 1995 and to 21.1 percent in 1997, which meant that for every five workers at least one was a non-regular worker.

Another local research has even claimed that between 1995 and 2005, contractual labor in the Philippines has “soared from 65 percent to as much as 78 percent of the country’s employed labor force.”
Whether or not that is accurate, what is certain is that figures on contractuals have surely shot up when businesses in the country, led by large foreign and local firms, have been described as “going on an orgy of contractualization” following the Department Order (D.O.) No. 10-97 in 1997 of the Department of Labor and Employment that sweepingly legalized “flexible work arrangements.”

After widespread protests from organized labor, D.O. No. 10 was revoked in 2001; however all the contracts entered into during its effectivity were honored, and was replaced the next year by D.O. No. 18-02 which practically restored the repealed D.O.

“We are studying hard for a better future and our parents end up being heavily indebted to ensure that we finish our education. But what kind of future would a series of three to five months’ of work will give us?” Gojol asked. “Contractualization could give us nothing but disposable jobs!” he retorted.

The APL-Youth is challenging the Aquino government to generate secure jobs for all, especially for the working youth, and for jobs wherein workers are justly remunerated and their rights are fully respected.
The APL-Youth is also calling for the passage of the Security of Tenure bill, which has been lingering in Congress for more than a decade now.

APL-Youth is the youth arm of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, a national labor center of various workers’ organizations in the private, informal and migrant sectors. APL-Youth, composed of community-, school- and workplace-based teens and young adults ages 15-35, aims to unite and empower the youth sector and to link them with the labor movement and the broader social movements.

“The crisis in the education system will not be solved by expanding the basic education cycle from 10 years to 12 years nor by venturing into various forms of privatization,” Joanna Bernice Coronacion, National Coordinator of APL Youth, declared. “On the contrary these policies could even worsen the problem,” she added.

The APL Youth believes that expanding basic education to 12 years at this time is unwise. “The plan would entail additional financial burden for working families that are already hard pressed to keep their children in school,” Coronacion said. “It could even be a cruel joke. Even if we expand basic education, work that are made available for us after we graduate would be a series of 3 to 5 month contratual job,” she lamented.

The APL Youth declared that contractualization kills the chance of young workers’ to live a decent life.

The APL Youth asserted that rather than tinker with the length of basic education, government should first address the severe classroom shortage, the low income of teaching and non-teaching personnel, the sub-standard textbooks, and many other issues that lead to low quality of education.

“Public-Private partnerships or even the strengthening of the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education or GASTPE would not solve these problems,” Coronacion said. “Such policies could even worsen the problem by turning public services into expensive commodities, and thereby out of reach of the poor,” she added.

According to the APL Youth, public-private partnerships and the GASTPE are various forms of partial privatization.

“What we need is massive public investment in basic education,” Coronacion said. “This can be done by channeling debt servicing to basic education and other public services,” she added.

The UN International Youth Day opens today in the PICC with the theme, “Strengthening Peace and Human Rights Education for the Youth: Key to Sustainable Development”.  The APL Youth contended that the forum would be grossly inadequate unless it tackles the misguided government solutions to the education crisis and the scourge of precarious work such as the growing pervasiveness of contractualization.

APL Youth is the youth arm of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, a national labor center of various workers’ organizations in the private, informal and migrant sectors. APL-Youth, composed of community-, school- and workplace-based teens and young adults ages 15-35, aims to unite and empower the youth sector and to link them with the labor movement and the broader social movements.

PHILIPPINES–To visualize the gravity of the crimes against humanity committed by Burma’s military regime, about a hundred of solidarity activists under the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines (FBC-Phils) today held a rally in front of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and urged the Philippine government to pledge its support to the ongoing international campaigns calling for the creation of a UN commission of inquiry to investigate possible crimes against humanity in Burma.

Said rally is also part of the international commemoration of the 22nd Anniversary of the August 08, 1988 national uprising in Burma where 10,000 peaceful demonstrators were shot, arrested and killed as they demanded democracy and an end to human rights violations and economic mismanagement by the Burmese military junta.

Present during the rally were the Amnesty International (AI), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK) and other individual supporters.

“With these continuing political repression and grave violations of human rights in Burma, how could we ensure the credibility and democratic integrity of Burma’s 2010 elections? The peoples of Burma need genuine democratic reforms but the ruling junta is simply unable and unwilling to fulfill its promised reforms,” said Egoy Bans, spokesperson of the FBC-Phils.

“Unless the junta institute tangible political reforms including the release of all political prisoners, all-inclusive review of the 2008 Nargis-constitution and cessation of hostilities against ethnic nationalities in Burma, this planned election will be perceived as a move only to legitimize the military junta’s hold to power,” Bans added.

FBC-Phils urged the Philippine government to lead the ASEAN in applying pressures to the military government of Burma to initiate immediate political reforms and through the Asean Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to effectively protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the peoples of Burma such as the Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Assembly and Association.

The group cited ‘the use of child soldiers, the destruction of villages and the displacement of ethnic minorities, the use of rape as a weapon of war, extrajudicial killings, torture, forced relocation, and forced labour as among the crimes committed by the junta against the peoples of Burma.

To dramatize further the extent of rights abuses in Burma, FBC-Phils also staged a “parade of the victims” in front of the DFA office. “These rights violations happen on a regular basis in Burma. The UN must look into this consistent pattern of abuses and must seek an end to this,” Bans stressed.

A Commission of Inquiry could be an initial step towards ending the reign of impunity in Burma and deterring the regime’s future perpetration of widespread and systematic human rights abuses against the peoples of Burma, the group concluded. It will be remembered that UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Quintana, had called for such a commission when he reported to the UN Human Rights Council in March after a visit to Myanmar a month earlier.

“The unprecedented high trust rating of President Aquino is a clear mandate for change – for good government and pro-poor policies,” Daniel L. Edralin, APL Chairperson said. “As such, today we march with other progressive forces to ensure that the Aquino government would live up to its mandate,” he added.

To lift large sections of the working class from poverty, the APL is urging the president to adopt the Labor Agenda, a set of policy reforms aimed at promoting full employment, increased social services and social protection, labor justice and strengthened protection of labor rights.

“The only way to fight poverty is to end the unemployment crisis,” Daniel L. Edralin, APL Chairperson said. “Government needs to generate jobs, secure and quality jobs, jobs wherein workers’ and trade union rights are full respected,” he added.

According to government statistics, as of April 2010, more than 3 million are unemployed and 6.3 million are underemployed. Addressing the plight of the unemployed and the underemployed – which comprise a quarter of the labor force – requires thoroughgoing reforms in the country’s trade, fiscal, monetary and investment policies.

More importantly, it requires having a clear industrial policy. “To industrialize, we can no longer rely on the export-oriented policies of the past,” Edralin said. “We need to develop the domestic economy,” he added. It is for this reason that APL finds President Aquino’s 22-point marching orders for the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) short of what workers are expecting.

At the same time, we cannot develop the economy without a firm commitment to adhere to basic workers’ and trade union rights. To signal its commitment to workers’ and trade union rights, the APL is calling on President Aquino to fully investigate the trade union killings perpetrated under the previous administration.

“The climate of impunity must stop,” Edralin said. “It will if we put to jail those who are responsible for the assassinations of trade unionist, activists and journalists, including the perpetrators of the Hacienda Luisita massacre,” Edralin added.

The country is a signatory to ILO conventions, specifically Convention 87 or the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention. Pending before the ILO is ILO Case No. 2528, where a total of thirty-nine (39) cases of extrajudicial killings of trade union leaders, members, organizers and union supporters and informal workers are alleged.

The APL will march in the NCR, Cebu, Davao and General Santos. In the NCR, the APL, together with Akbayan, will march towards Batasan in the morning. In the afternoon, APL will link up with the Kowalisyon Kontra Kontraktwalisasyon (KONTRA), Freedom from Debt Coalition, and Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP).

In particular, the Akbayan-Citizens’ Action Party said that the opposition to the selection of Rosales “was motivated more by ideological biases against her and Akbayan rather than by a sincere effort to make (CHR) more efficient in promoting human rights and securing justice for the abused.”

Akbayan, which is now assured of at least two seats in the incoming 15th Congress after an impressive showing in the recent May 10 party-list election, added that Rosales “has shown objectivity and openness in dealing with the intricacies of human rights and has repeatedly proven her firm and steady resolve to pursue and defend the people’s rights and freedom.”

APL cited Rosales’ long track record in championing various facets of democracy and human rights, including labor and trade union rights and national sovereignty, through her deep involvement in different mass organizations since the heyday of the Marcos dictatorship – from teachers’ union and alliance to national multisectoral coalition to political groupings to human rights advocacy networks and to NGOs.

One of the tens of thousands of human rights victims of the Marcos regime, Rosales also became a political prisoner and was tortured and abused by her military captors.

Rosales was also the very first Akbayan congressional representative after the party won a seat in the first ever party-list election in 1998. She eventually served the maximum three consecutive terms, from the 11th to the 13th Congresses or from 1998 to 2007. She is now the party’s chairman-emeritus.

During her nine years in Congress, Rosales earned both the respect and fear of allies and foes, respectively, for her no-nonsense stance for progressive legislations and social advocacies as well as fierce criticism against corruption, patronage politics and many forms of abuses from within and outside the government, including her former comrades and even current colleagues in the broad Left movement.

For her all-encompassing activism and engagements, including her eventful chairmanship of the then House Committee on Human, Civil and Political Rights, Rosales gained not only many supporters and admirers but likewise virulent enemies and critics, ironically both from the state-security establishment and a segment of the Left.

This might partly explain, the APL said, the well orchestrated objection of several closely allied organizations to the supposed “offer” of President Aquino to Rosales – which she herself clarified as not yet final or still “unofficial” – to become the successor of ex-CHR Chair Leila de Lima, who’s now the Justice Secretary.

NOYNOY Aquino’s overwhelming electoral victory is a testimony of a widespread clamor and a clear mandate for change, especially for good governance and pro-poor policies, after the nation endured more than nine years of endless and large-scale corruption, worsening poverty, blatant violations of human and democratic rights, and systematic duplicity under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

This makes Aquino’s responsibility bigger and the masses’ expectations of him higher, the Alliance of Progressive Labor said, as he begins his presidency following his inauguration today as the 15th Philippine president.

Vowing this early to press Aquino to live up to his “people’s mandate,” the APL and other progressive forces in the labor and social movements are urging the new president to make “full employment” one of the centerpiece programs of his administration.

“The only way to fight poverty is to lift large sections of the working class from poverty by providing them jobs,” Daniel Edralin, APL chair, said, adding: “But we are not just for any jobs, we want secure and quality jobs. Of equal importance, we want jobs where labor and trade union rights are fully respected and implemented.”

Despite the much ballyhooed “36 quarters of uninterrupted growth” allegedly initiated by Arroyo, the number of poor Filipinos or those five-person families living on a little over P1,200 a month has risen to 27.60 million in 2006 from 25.47 million in 2001, the year when Arroyo assumed the presidency after the ouster of the similarly corrupt government of Joseph Estrada.

Government data also revealed that underemployment rate has declined in April to 17.8 percent of the labor force or about 6.3 million workers, but the number of those without jobs has posted a two-year high and thus could further aggravate poverty incidence, when unemployment rate swelled to 8 percent or comprising of 3.1 million jobless Filipinos.

The APL stressed that addressing the plight of the unemployed and underemployed – their numbers are still conservative, but they already represent at least a quarter of the 38.8 million labor force in January – requires comprehensive reforms in the country’s trade, fiscal, monetary and investment policies.

“More importantly, it requires having a clear industrial policy that strengthens domestic economy which no longer relies on the export-oriented strategy of the past and aims to reverse the current neoliberal programs that have killed the Philippine agriculture and industry,” Edralin explained.

Amid these economic restructurings, however, the APL underscored the need for the Aquino administration to ensure basic human, labor and trade union rights, including a stop to the climate of impunity which intensified during Arroyo’s rule as well as the prompt punishment of the perpetrators.

“Noynoy should guarantee that within his six-year term, those involved in big-time corruption and other anomalies – for example, the ZTE broadband deal and the fertilizer scam – as well as in the killings, abductions and harassment of trade unionists, activists and journalists – including the gruesome Maguindanao massacre – are without delay sent to jails,” the APL added.

PHILIPPINES—Filipino solidarity activists under the Free Burma Coalition – Philippines (FBC-Phils) today staged a “PEOPLE’s ELECTION” in front of the Burma Embassy in Makati City to denounce Burma’s 2010 military elections, which according to the group is “a one-sided and undemocratic plan that will just legitimize the junta’s hold to power.”

Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Taga-Lungsod (KPML), Asian Bridge, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women –Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), APL-Youth, Akbayan and the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) were the organizations present during the rally.

“We urge Noynoy to adopt his late mother’s critical position against the ruling military generals in Burma. As the next Philippine president, he can even lead the ASEAN in applying stronger political pressures to the junta. He has to prove that Filipinos abhor tyrannical regimes like the one in Rangoon,“ Bans explained.

The group added that the ASEAN must also take bolder steps to compel the military regime of Burma to democratize. Bans continued, “it is no longer possible for the ASEAN to defend Burma at this stage. The ASEAN must now confess that the policy of constructive engagement to Burma is a miserable failure.”

Other international actions:

In New Delhi, India: People’s Elections and Rally. A People’s Election Commission was formed with Church and community leaders who will collect postcard ballots. Events will be held between 27 and 30 May on the Thai-Burma border, in India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, UK, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, US, Canada, and Brazil, marking a Global Day of Action as part of the Global Campaign Against Burma’s 2010 Military Elections.

“Gloria never ceases to insult the working class,” Daniel L. Edralin, APL Chairperson said. “She is obviously ignorant of the historic importance of Labor Day,” he added.

May Day was born from the struggle for the eight-hour day. It has since come to symbolize the working class itself and its struggles.

With just a few days to go before the national elections, the elite-dominated electoral contest has yet to tackle issues that are dear to the working people. This would result to people trooping again to the polls without a clear idea of what they could expect from their candidates after being elected.

It is for this reason that the APL and its allies marched to project the “Labor Agenda.” The Agenda identifies specific programs aimed at promoting security of tenure and quality jobs for all or full employment, improving labor justice, strengthening the protection of labor and trade union rights, and advancing the economic and social justice.

“We are calling on all workers to vote for candidates who are committed to implement the Labor Agenda,” Edralin said.

The APL also endorsed Akbayan in the party list election and supported the senatorial bid of Risa Hontiveros.

At the same time, APL enjoined workers to use its collective vote to end the Arroyo regime’s Kleptocracy. “Enough of Arroyo and her ilk,” Edralin declared. “Let’s make sure that she and her anointed candidates, including “Villarroyo”, are roundly beaten in the coming elections,” Edralin asserted.

APL held rallies in Manila, Lipa, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and General Santos. In Manila, the APL linked up with the Labor Agenda Coalition in Mendiola.

At the same time, labor rights are routinely violated as the country’s labor justice system remains slow and litigious, legitimized by martial law-crafted Labor Code with all its anti-worker and anti-union features. This dismal situation in the labor front, mixed with the government’s counter insurgency program, proved to be deadly for trade unionists, journalists and activists.

In this light, the different labor groups, coming from diverse ideological orientations, banded together under the Labor Agenda Coalition to promote and advance the policy of full employment, increased social protection, labor justice and strengthened protection of labor rights. Among its more important features are:

Secure and quality jobs: The workers’ constitutional right to security of tenure must be upheld as central government policy. All policies, including monetary, fiscal, trade and industrial policies, must be redirected towards the creation of secure and quality jobs for all. All our trade commitments, both the bilateral and multilateral, must be reviewed and renegotiated to ensure more equitable terms that would lead to development of a self-reliant economy and benefit the domestic labor force.

Improve labor justice system: The foremost need is to amend the Labor Code to dismantle all anti-labor provisions including procedural restrictions on the right to strike, free ingress/egress of company goods and personnel during strikes, limitations on the issues that are strikeable, and cumbersome union recognition procedures. The labor arbitration and adjudication system should be reformed towards streamlining and achieving full efficiency.

Strengthen trade union rights: The Assumption of Jurisdiction powers of the Secretary of Labor should be limited to those in the essential services as clearly defined by the ILO. Labor laws and policies particularly those that safeguard core labor standards, as well as the freedom of association and organization and the right to collective bargaining and strike, should be changed to comply with ILO conventions.

Uphold civil and political rights: Justice must be rendered to all victims of trade union and human rights violations. Victims must be indemnified while the perpetrators must be apprehended and punish.

Social and Economic Reforms: Fiscal policies should be reviewed and the automatic appropriations policy should be repealed to maximize budget allocation for public services, including the allocations for healthcare and education. A thoroughgoing agrarian reform must be implemented to pave the way for industrialization. The Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (UDHA) should be improved and implemented to facilitate and provide affordable if not free housing units to every family of workers and the urban and rural poor. An unemployment insurance system must be adopted after a careful study.

To ensure the implementation of labor’s priority agenda, workers must be represented in government bodies whose decisions affect the welfare of the working class.

The Labor Agenda Coalition calls on all workers to renew their commitment to the emancipation of the toiling people.

The Labor Agenda, written in a memorandum of agreement format, will be presented soon to presidential bet. A version for aspirants for congressional, senatorial and local posts, including party-list groups, will likewise be formulated.

Josua Mata, secretary general of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), disclosed that “each of the coalition partners will actively encourage its members and supporters to vote for those who would commit to the ‘agenda,’” adding that they “will continue to join forces even after the elections to put pressure on the new government to fully implement the Labor Agenda.”

The Labor Agenda was crafted by 26 labor organizations with diverse ideological orientations – labor centers, confederations, federations, national unions and alliances –crafted this Labor Agenda after a series of intense critiquing among them, which started last month.

Far from the usual motherhood statements, the Labor Agenda identifies specific programs aimed at promoting security of tenure and quality jobs for all or full employment, improving labor justice, strengthening the protection of labor and trade union rights, and advancing the more general economic and social justice.

Banding together and creating the Labor Agenda was in response to the pathetic situation where the issues and concerns of the workers are barely discussed in the election campaign resulting to people trooping again to the polls without a clear idea of what they could expect from their candidates after being elected, the coalition said.

Some of the programs or provisions cited in the Labor Agenda are to certify as urgent the Security of Tenure Bill for the private sector workers as well as a counterpart bill for public sector employees; to limit the assumption of jurisdiction powers of the Secretary of Labor; to strictly align the country’s labor policies especially with the ILO Conventions; among others.

Signatories of the Labor Agenda are Alliance of Coca-Cola Unions-Philippines (ACCUP), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Automotive Industry Workers’ Alliance (AIWA), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa sa Government Financial Institutions (KAMAGFI), Kapisanan ng Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO), Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng mga Manggagawa sa Pilipinas (KPMP), Lakas Manggagawa Labor Center (LMLC).

League of Independent Bank Organizations (LIBO), Liga Manggagawa (LM), Nagkaisang Lakas ng mga Manggagawa (NLM), National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), National Confederation of Transportworkers’ Unions (NCTU), National Federation of Labor (NFL), National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Labor Union (NLU).

National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), National Union of Building and Construction Workers (NUBCW), National Union of Workers in Hotel, Restaurant and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN), Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA), Pinag-isang Tinig at Lakas ng Anakpawis (PIGLAS), Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), and Workers’ Solidarity Network (WSN).

This is among the labor unities agreed upon by 26 labor groups and alliances to be presented to leading presidential candidates. Together, these groups represent at least 300,000 members nationwide. The said common labor agenda will be the highlight of their joint Labor Day celebration on May 1.

Frank Mero spokespersons of the labor alliance, said that workers’ issues should be among the top priorities of the new government. “It is high time for candidates to go beyond the rhetoric of poverty alleviation and give a more concrete program of action to ensure employment and decent work condition for the working class,” Mero emphasized.

Among the other demands for policy reforms are those that concern security of tenure and workers’ protection against corporate restructuring in the public and private sectors.  Likewise, the labor groups demand that “trade, monetary, fiscal and industrial policies are directed at quality job creation within the country so that working abroad will become a matter of choice rather than of necessity.”

In a joint declaration, the labor groups demand that the new government should give priority to workers’ rights and welfare – which includes demand for a full and impartial investigation of cases that violated trade union and human rights, as well as the enactment of executive measures to ensure that civil and political rights of workers are protected.

The joint declaration also includes social reforms such as full implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program- Extension with Reforms (Carper), the modification of the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 and a more equitable allocation of the IRA.

“We challenge all national candidates to adopt this labor agenda as their part of their platform which will serve as the basis for workers’ support to their candidacies,” Mero said.

The major labor centers endorsing the labor agenda are the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Pilipinas (KPMP), Lakas Manggaggawa Labor Center (LMLC) and Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN).

Major labor organization, federations and industry alliances also endorsed the agenda. They are the Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA), Alliance of Coca-Cola Unions in the Philippines (ACCUP), Automotive Industry Workers’ Alliance (AIWA), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Fortune Tobacco Labor Union (FTLU), Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa sa GFIs (KAMAGFI), Kapisanan ng mga Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO), League of Independent Bank Organizations (LIBO), Liga Mangagagawa, Nagkaisang Lakas ng mga Manggagawa (NLM), Metro East Labor Federation (MELF), National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), National Confederation of Transport Workers’ Unions (NCTU), National Federation of Labor (NFL), National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Labor Union (NLU), National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), National Union of Building and Construction Workers (NUBCW), National Union of Workers in Hotel Restaurants and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN), Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), Partido ng Mangagagawa (PM), Pinag-isang Tinig at Lakas ng Anak Pawis (PIGLAS), Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Solidarity of Unions for Empowerment and Reforms (SUPER FED), United Cavite Workers’ Association (UCWA) and Workers’ Solidarity Network (WSN).

Palayain ang 43 “Health Workers”! Palayain ang lahat ng Bilanggong Pulitikal!

Apatnapu’t tatlong (43) mangagawang pangkalusugan (health workers) ang karagdagan sa mahabang listahan ng biktima ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao sa ilalim ng pamumuno ni Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.  Isang pahabol sa kanyang terminong patapos.

Apatnapu’t tatlong (43) tagapagtanggol ng karapatang pantao nanaman ang minarkahang rebelde at kalaban ng pamahalaan.  Ang apatnap’t tatlong (43) ito rin na dadagdag sa 258 na mga aktibistang kasalukuyang nakapiit, ang kinakasuhan ng kriminal o kaya ay terorismo. Isang diskarteng mapaniil upang tuluyan ang pagkakulong at supilin ang katunggaling pampulitikang paniniwala.

Naninindigan ang Free All Political Prisoners and Political Detainees Campaign Network na isang tahasang paglabag sa karapatang sibil pulitikal ng 43 “Health Workers” ang naganap na ilegal na pag-aresto sa kanila nitong nakaraang ika-6 ng Pebrero 2010 sa isang training center sa Morong rizal.

Ang kawalan ng warrant of arrest at pagtatanim ng ebidensya ay gawi ng AFP sa mga taong nais nitong idiin, na malinaw na paglabag sa kanilang karapatang pantao.

Sadyang kampante na makalulusot ang militar at pulis, sapagkat matapos ikulong sa Kampo Capinpin ay ilang araw na ipinagkait sa mga biktima na makita man lang ng mga kaanak, ng abogado at maging ng Commission on Human Rights (CHR).  Ito ay sa kabila ng kapapasa lamang na batas laban sa tortyur o sa anumang marahas at di  makataong pagtrato o pagpaparusa.

Ang sinapit ng 43 health workers ay nagpapakita sa sistematikong paglabag ng AFP sa dapat sana’y nirerespeto at itinataguyod na mga karapatang sibil at pulitikal na  ginagarantiya ng Konstitusyon.

Pinapakita lamang na sa larangan ng pagtataguyod ng karapatang pantao ay salat ang sandatahang lakas bagkus walang pangingimi na pangatwiranan ang kanilang kondukta sa kabila ng pagkakaroon ng batas laban sa tortyur

Matagal nang kinilala sa daigdig na ang pagwawalang-bahala at paglalapastangan sa mga karapatan ng tao ay nagbubunga ng mga gawang di makatao na humahamak sa budhi ng sangkatauhan tulad ng isinasaad sa UDHR.

Ang paglabag sa due process, deprivation of liberty, tortyur at iba pang indignidad na dinaan ng mga biktima ay walang lugar sa isang demokrasya. At ang mga tagapagtaguyod ng ganitong mga paglabag , kung gayon, ay hindi dapat hayaang mamayagpag.

Hindi rin makatwiran ang pinapahayag ng alegasyon ng mga kawani ng sandatahan lakas na ang panggagamot sa mga kasapi ng NPA ay isang kasalanan.  Kanila atang nakakaligtaan na ang karapatang magamot ng mga sugatan at may sakit kahit sa gitna giyera ay iginagalang sa buong mundo.

Walang puwang ang tortyur at iba pang pagpapahirap at di makataong pagpaparusa  sa isang demokratikong lipunan.

At lahat ay may karapatang ituring na walang-sala hangga’t di napapatunayang nagkasala, gayundin ang karapatan magkaroon ng abogado at karapatang maipagtanggol ang kanyang sarili laban sa anumang akusasyon o pagkakasala.

Lahat ng ito’y dapat tinamasa ng 43 health workers nuong ika 6 ng Pebrero ngunit patuloy na pinagkakait sa kanila.  At bilang Commander in Chief ng sandatahang lakas, ang ultimong may pananagutan sa ganitong mga paglabag ay si GMA, na sa kanyang pananahimik ay nangangahulugang pagkandili sa ganitong kalakaran.

Pinananawagan at pinaninindigan ng Free All Political Prisoners and Political Detainees Campaign Network na hindi dapat pinalalagpas at dapat mapanagot ang nakakawilihang paglabag sa karapatang pantao ng mga kawani ng sandatahang lakas.

Dapat itigil ang mga iligal na pagarestong katulad ng sa Morong 43. Igiit at ipagtanggol ang karapatan ng lahat ng mamamayan sa pantay ng pagtingin ng hukom at hustisya.

Itigil ang panggigipit sa mga tagapagtanggol ng karapatang pantao!

Itigil ang represyon at panunupil ng lahat ng karapatang pantao!

Ipataw ang kaparusahang batay sa RA 9745 o Anti-torture Act sa mga mapapatunayang lumabag dito!

Palayain ang Morong 43! Palayain ang lahat ng bilanggong Pulitiklal!

Ika-19 ng Pebrero 2010

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & POLITICAL DETAINEES CAMPAIGN NETWORK

Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL);

Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP);

Balay Rehabilitation Center, Inc.(BALAY); Bukluran ng Mangagawang Pilipino (BMP);

Freedom of Four Political Detainees in MCJ (F4)

Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND);

KAPATID; Kilusan para sa Pambansang demokrasya (KPD);  Medical Action Group (MAG);

Moro Human Rights Center (MHRC); Nuclear Free Bataan Movement-Network (NFBM-Net);

Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services (PARRDS);

Partido ng Lakas ng Masa (PLM); Partido ng Manggagawa (PM);

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA);

REHAS; Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK); SALINLAHI; SANLAKAS;

Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP); Youth for Nationalism and Democracy (YND);

Youth for Rights (Y4R)