North Luzon cops reinforce Labor Day security in Manila

At least 200 police personnel from La Union in Northern Luzon arrived in Manila before dawn Sunday to reinforce security in vital installations on Labor Day. Militant groups also started assembling at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City to start their Labor Day protest rallies. The police personnel from La Union arrived at the Manila Police District headquarters at 4 a.m. on five air-conditioned buses, radio dzBB's Mao dela Cruz reported. They were to be assigned to Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang, the United States Embassy along Roxas Boulevard (a regular target of Labor Day protests by militant groups) and the Rizal Park (Luneta). President Benigno Aquino III was to have an early breakfast meeting with labor leaders in Malacañang while a job fair was to be held at the Luneta Park. On the other hand, militant groups started assembling at the Mabuhay Rotonda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City. Some 500 militant laborers and jeep drivers prepared streamers at the area, while police personnel kept their distance, radio dzBB's Glen Juego reported. Militants had planned to assemble at the Trabajo Market, Blumentritt area and in Paco area, then proceed to Liwasang Bonifacio for their program. Protests until June 30 Saying the government has miserably failed to protect the Filipino workers, militant labor groups said Sunday resistance is now the only way out for the crisis they are facing. Militant umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan also hinted Sunday's Labor Day protests will just be the start of more protests leading to the Aquino administration's first anniversary on June 30. "Despite its posturing of being sensitive to the plight of the poor, the Aquino administration has pleaded helplessness in the wake of rising prices, escalating hunger and worsening poverty. Its response to public clamor has been limited to ad hoc solutions. Dole-out economics and 'pantawid' programs have failed to truly address the burdens faced by the people. Workers are given more of the same policies from the previous Arroyo administration," it said in a statement. Bayan said that after Sunday's Labor Day protests, the government can expect more mass actions leading to the first anniversary of the Aquino administration. It added there is "great resistance" from the administration on other demands such as price controls, the removal of the Value Added Tax on oil and other forms of economic relief. Making the economic crisis even more scandalous is the unpunished corruption that is prevalent in all branches of government, Bayan said. "The people are still crying out for justice for the gross corruption and human rights violations committed by the Arroyo regime," it said. Bayan added Filipino workers cannot expect fundamental economic reforms from the current administration, especially if its economic policies adhere closely to neo-liberal globalization. It said the government has supported the depression of wages while supporting private profits. Wage hike Earlier, militant workers voiced outrage at the government for leaving out a wage hike in its list of "gifts" for laborers on May 1. Militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno likened the non-wage benefits for Labor Day to a "spit" rather than a "gift" from the Palace. “Workers are outraged over the Aquino government’s refusal to grant the significant wage hike that we badly need right now to cope with the skyrocketting prices of basic goods and services. This is not a move of a government that is genuinely concerned over the intensifying hunger and poverty among its people, but of a government wanting to project that at least it is doing something," KMU chairman Elmer Labog said in a statement on the group's website. He was referring to reports that the Palace's "good news" will include benefits from Pag-IBIG, PhilHealth, Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System. The KMU had been pushing for a P125 legislated wage hike. Labog cited a study of IBON Foundation showing a P125 across-the-board wage hike nationwide is equivalent to a mere 15.1-percent reduction in capitalists' profits. Meanwhile, militant labor group Migrante Middle East accused the Aquino administration of giving only lip service in providing assistance, protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of almost 10 million overseas Filipino workers and their families. It said the government "deliberately utilized and maximized the sellout of its human labor resources in blind adherence to US Imperialist directed World Trade Organizations (WTO) imposition on General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS) that requires shortening of employment contracts, lowering of wages, continuing attacks on workers’ unions rights, implementing strict immigration rules but ensuring the flow of cheap temporary migrant workers for the benefit of multinational and transnational corporations by the so called First World countries." According to Migrante, the Aquino administration, like the previous Arroyo regime, is only after and interested in the billions of remittances from OFWs that is keeping the economy in crisis afloat and have billions of dollar reserves. "Aquino is not even paying attention to the calls by the farmers for genuine implementation of agrarian reform and by some industrialists for nationalization of basic industries that could pave the way to economic development," it added. — LBG, GMA News