KMU-SMR tells Gloria: Your boat is sinking, abandon ship now!

Davao City—Kilusang Mayo Uno-Southern Mindanao Region joined various progressive organizations and partylists today in the condemnation rally held at Rizal Park here in the wake of Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address.

The militant labor center said that the SONA, which shall open the 14th Congress, will be no more than a rehash of Arroyo’s feigned economic and political growth and even more superficial and recycled promises of further development.

KMU-SMR chairperson Romualdo Basilio said that the Filipino working class would rather take to the streets than hear more of Arroyo’s contrived economic figures to misrepresent the true state of the nation.

“Arroyo’s mythic ‘bankang papel’ has been sinking ever since she took power in 2001 and subsequently stole the presidency in 2004. We have long endured her preposterous claim of economic recovery that never trickled down on the most productive force of the country. The workers and all other exploited sectors are being pushed to destitution while the rich and her imperialist US bosses are lounging in all our hardwork. She needs to abandon Malacanang—her boat of power—as soon as possible.”

Basilio referred to the paper boat that Arroyo used in one of her previous speeches to exemplify the country’s ‘stern sailing about amid tumultuous economic hurdles.’

Basilio slammed the administration’s trumped up claim of increased job opportunities which it claimed in the 2004 SONA would result to generating 10 millions jobs by 2010. The government reported having yielded 7.05 million jobs from 2005 to 2007. “What jobs is Gloria talking about? The sheer number of Filipinos leaving the country every day—3,000 and growing—debunks this baseless claim of her government. Domestically, unemployment and underemployment continue to hound Filipino workers as either absence of job opportunities or insufficient wages insecure families’ attempt to survive decently,”

Basilio noted the figures of independent think tank IBON Databank showing at least 65 million Filipinos, or about 80% of the population, surviving on the equivalent of P96 or less per day.

“Being anti-worker, her administration has also consistently deprived workers of the P125 across the board legislated wage hike. No worker will ever claim that his economic condition has improved for the better under Arroyo’s pro-capitalist government.” Basilio explained that while Arroyo will trumpet a strong peso at the Batasang Pambasa today, no degree of soaring indices or speculative portfolio investments will buttress the fact that Filipino workers can not make ends meet with the kind of paltry minimum wage the government tells them they deserve.

If economic terrorism were not enough, Basilio added, the Arroyo administration continues to outdo itself by pushing anti-people and anti-democracy legislations such as the recent Human Security Act of 2007.

“Workers are already hard-pressed at asserting their rights to unionism and strike and other forms of redress of grievance. Scores of our leaders and members have already been butchered, detained or abducted. Now that this fascist government has shoved the anti-terrorism legislation against the Filipino people, a simple mass action or picket rally in front of our places of employment might already be construed as acts of terrorism, what with idiots and murderers like the Gonzales stooges, Palparan or Esperon to interpret and deem what terrorism is and who terrorists are.”

Basilio said that at the very least, this year’s SONA, like the six others before it, will never present the real state of the country or the growing and deafening discontent of the people against Arroyo. “But our ranks in the working class, along with other marginalized sectors in the country, will showcase in the streets what we know are truths of our very existence under Gloria. Any self-respecting solon today only needs to step out of the halls of the House of Representatives to see what the nation really is; and keep his self-respect by joining the boisterous call to demand Gloria’s immediate ouster,” he concluded.