24 years after Edsa, radical change still needed – KMU

Amid celebrations for the 24th annivesary of the 1986 “people power” revolt that ousted former strongman Ferdinand Marcos, labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno today said Marcosian rule merely changed face and that the Filipino workers and people still clamor for thoroughgoing changes in the country.

“We removed Marcos from power only to see him change face in succeding presidents. Poverty, hunger, joblessness, corruption, repression – these are like ugly threads that run through governments that came after Marcos,” said Joselito “Lito” Ustarez, KMU executive vice-president.

“Post-Edsa regimes have only intensified the comprehensive attack on our rights and interests as workers and people. That is why we still clamor for change. After learning that elections won’t change the system decades ago, it is also becoming clearer to many people that even people power uprisings won’t do. We need something more radical,” said Ustarez.

“Shortly after former President Cory Aquino assumed the presidency in 1986, people were already saying that only the faces in government have changed, but nothing much else. Edsa 1 left the basic socio-economic structure of the country intact. Now, 24 years after Edsa 1, we have proven the undeniable truth of those statements,” he added.

Ustarez said that poor people’s basic food has changed from galunggong in late 1980s to instant noodles today, that one out of three Filipinos are experiencing involuntary hunger, that the few jobs available today are less secure because of contractualization, that 40% of the national budget goes to corruption, and that blatant and massive human rights violations continue to be committed.

“Attacks on the livelihood and rights of people have only changed forms – and one can reasonably say that they have even intensified through the years. Marcos declared martial law; Gloria did not – but the results are the same: hundreds of people dead, missing, displaced or injured,” said Ustarez.

The labor leader also said that workers continue to suffer from attacks on the labor sector that were made during the Aquino government. He cited the Herrera Law which legalized the contractualization of labor and the labor secretary’s Assumption of Jurisdiction power over labor disputes, as well as the regionalization of wages through the wage boards.

“Instead of improving the lot of Filipino workers, the Aquino government launched attacks on our rights and interests in all fronts. Regarding job security, it promoted the contractualization of labor. Regarding trade-union repression, it allowed the labor secretary to send military and police forces in labor disputes. And regarding wages, it made efforts to raise wages across the country doubly difficult with the creation of the regional wage boards,” Ustarez said.