[Trabaho sa Sariling Bayan!] Statement for International Migrants’ Day

As we celebrate International Migrants’ Day today, we reiterate our call for “trabaho sa sariling bayan,” for jobs in the motherland.

It is the lack of opportunities for employment and the low quality of available employment that drive about 4,000 Filipinos everyday to work abroad – not to seek greener pastures but to survive. The dire employment situation in the country is one of the causes of the intensifying hunger and poverty in the country.

We condemn the government of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III for refusing to make a policy shift to generate decent employment in the country. The Aquino government chooses to continue clinging to an employment plan that is dependent on foreign capital, which is becoming more exploitative amidst the economic crisis.

We also condemn the Aquino government for refusing to implement measures that will improve the available jobs in the country. It has refused to implement a significant wage hike, junk contractualization, control prices especially of petroleum products, stop demolition of urban poor communities and uphold workers’ rights.

Not only has it refused to implement “first-aid” reforms for Filipino workers and people, it has also refused to provide services to Filipino migrants. For 2012, it has cut the budget for services to migrant workers. It has also imposed taxes on migrants’ contributions to social security like SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-ibig.

Problems as deep-seated as the lack of employment opportunities and decent employment can only be solved with radical solutions. We are calling on the Filipino workers, migrants and people to struggle for an employment policy that puts the capacity and needs of the country above the interests of foreign capital.

In short, we are calling on the Filipino workers, migrants and people to struggle for genuine land reform and national industrializaton. We have to fight for a government that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people to provide decent employment for everyone and end hunger and poverty in the country.