“Contractualization has violated workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain for higher wages, economic benefits, social security, better terms of employment, and better work conditions. It has also forced workers into accepting unfair labor practices and violations of their political rights. This points to the urgency of real measures by the government to not merely…
The Philippine Congress pushed anew efforts towards amending the 1987 Philippine Constitution… This call for changes in the Charter is the latest among many attempts, seeking to remove the Charter’s nationalist and other progressive economic provisions. Widespread protests and outright resistance from various sectors however deterred legislators from pursuing the changes. Those who are opposed…
There should be an immediate, substantial and across-the-board minimum wage increase against the high inflation. Approve and mandate the Php750 national minimum wage that workers’ groups are calling for. Suspend TRAIN Package One, which is among the drivers of inflation. Ensure job security, necessary benefits, working conditions, and much needed social services to assist Filipino…
While the change in global oil prices and peso depreciation were factors in recent inflation, TRAIN also already increased the prices of oil products, sugar sweetened beverages and other goods and services. The public has been feeling the weight of price hikes as early as January.
Foreign ownership of education could lead to the further commercialization of education especially with the introduction of new competitors to the private education business. Commercialized PH education has already seen decades of increasing tuition and school fees, the rise of oligarchs-run educational institutions against a weakening public system, and a career-oriented curriculum instead of one…
While foreign land grabbing intensifies across the globe, the concentration of Philippine agricultural lands in the hands of oligarchs amid sham land distribution is becoming even more rampant, depriving the tillers of the fruits of the land they made productive, and threatening the country’s food security.
The Philippine government spearheaded Water Day 2018 celebrations themed “Nature for Water”. Water for the people advocates however note that the government’s big-ticket Build Build Build water and energy dams plans, aside from being unnecessary, could destroy lives and livelihoods. The New Centennial Water Source Kaliwa and Laiban Phases I and II and the Chico…
The proposed “Road to Rio” is not a departure from the general framework of the same greedy system that has pushed the planet to the precipice of destruction. It still looks at nature, people and their products as capital that must be used in the most efficient manner for profit accumulation and capitalist expansion. It…