Duterte goes on a shopping spree of weapons in Israel, arming State forces to kill more Filipinos – Karapatan
‘Christian minorities’ in new Bangsamoro entity want inclusiveness in political process
Not wanting to be just a mere bystander once a new Bangsamoro political entity will be created following the enactment of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) recently, a group of Christian church officials is pushing for the crafting of policies that will be inclusive to all who are living in the Muslim-dominated territories in Mindanao.
PLDT supervisors file notice of strike
PLDT supervisory union Gabay ng Unyon sa Telekomunikasyon ng mga Superbisor (GUTS) filed a “notice of strike” today at the Department of Labor and Employment over issues of unfair labor practices and illegal massive dismissal of 12,000 PLDT workers last June 31, 2018.
The group said that the filing of a strike is part of their long-drawn campaign for the regularization of all PLDT workers. According to the group, this comes after the termination of outsourced workers in June, where supervisors from various branches of PLDT across the country were left to carry workloads previously done by the contractual workers.
The said recent shift of work operations in PLDT have been affecting the health conditions of their members. “As the highest form of collective action of workers, we are planning to hold a strike in the days to come. This isan expression of our extreme outrage against PLDT management’s moves and maneuvers to circumvent the law and previous DOLE compliance orders to regularize its workers and employees,” said GUTS President Charlito Arevalo.
No plans to regularize workers
Arevalo pointed out that after the release of the reversed decision of the Court of Appeals to the DOLE regularization order last July 31, PLDT filed another motion for reconsideration last August 20 to the CA questioning the part of the said decision regarding the regularization of PLDT installers, repair crew, and maintenance crew.
“Clearly, PLDT has been hell-bent in resorting to all legal remedies and actions in order not to add up even a single worker to its regular workers. The PLDT management is really not serious in regularizing its workers,” Arevalo said.
GUTS also broke their silence over news reports reiterating DOLE’s statements about holding meetings with PLDT regarding compromised regularization agreements of 50% to 60% of workers on DOLE’s regularization compliance order.
PLDT on Monday denied the said information released by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III. “Even if such information is fake or true, PLDT and DOLE must not enter into any compromise deals in behalf of the regularization of all the terminated 12,000 workers of PLDT due to DOLE’s cease and desist order. Our demand is clear enough that PLDT and DOLE must regularize all of these workers and end all forms of contractualization in the soonest possible time,” Arevalo said.
He also reminded Secretary Bello and President Duterte that the root of all the termination of contractual workers of PLDT and other companies across the country is the DOLE Order 174 and Executive Order 51 which the government itself issued. GUTS said that such orders were being used and maximized by PLDT and other companies to worsen the state of contractualization in the country. Precedent Arevalo also warned Bello and Duterte that whatever the final decision that will be generated in the fight for regularization of PLDT workers will set a strong precedent to all the contractual workers nationwide. “To date, all eyes have been looking on the case of PLDT as our fight as PLDT workers is not just ours, but of the entire Filipino working class, as well,” he said.
On the other hand, members of the PLDT Organization of Workers and Employees for Rights – Kilos Na Manggagawa (POWER-KNM) expressed their full support to the planned strike and said that they will be joining their supervisors in whatever course of action they will take.
“As PLDT is being consistent in closing all the openings and avenues for regularization, we call on all workers of PLDT to support all the plans of our supervisors as our interests are primarily at stake here,” POWER-KNM spokesperson Marga Lamigo said.
She calls on members and officials of different labor groups to unite in calling for regularization.
“Our battle is far from over. The PLDT management must be reminded that we are just starting our battle for regularization and that we are determined to fight for it until the end, until the victory of all PLDT workers,” Lamigo said.
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STILL MOURNING
Jerome Carayao, one of the survivors, offers flowers for the 15 persons killed during the Roxas Night Market deadly bombing two years ago. Carayao joins the families of the victims and city officials in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Romulo Valle held on Saturday afternoon, September 1, 2019at the Roxas Memorial in Davao City. (Kath M. Cortez/davaotoday.com)
Stop the arrest and detention of activists in India! Free all political prisoners!
The Commission 3 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) decries the spate of simultaneous illegal arrests and raids by the authorities in Mumbai, Thane, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Delhi and Faridabad in India on the early morning of August 28, 2018.
‘Rice industry is at the risk of annihilation’
Poetry | A Beautiful Woman’s Rejoinder to the Latest Rape Joke
“As long as there are many beautiful women, there is rape…Nobody agrees to do it on the first try. That is rape. Even when they’re inside the cinema, she will push him away. ‘No, don’t’…But if you happen to sit beside someone toothless, would you still want to do that?” ~Pres. Rodrigo Duterte
I once knew of a toothless woman who went into a cinema.
She tried to cloak her ugliness in the darkness
but a man saw it,
and raped its shadow.
The crime scene—his dominion over the unblessed—
vanished when the lights came on
and the laughter
and sycophantic applause
died down.
It will reappear.
Not in the catcalling streets of desperate daylight,
but inside his poorly lit home—
the asexual house help, the beaming five-year-old,
the studious niece who envies her pretty classmates—
they all cried for help
when he raped their terrified silence
while the police milled around outside
investigating non-crimes
such as the possession
of a toothless, raped smile.
I once knew of a young Australian missionary
serving bread and hope to prisoners
of a godforsaken country.
They say was too beautiful to be raped.
So the mayor came, Uzi submachinegun
firing like his penis,
and raped her memory.
Such that whenever a gang happens to rape a woman,
they now check with local government:
who knows if mayor wants to be first?
Better safe than be emasculated with a bullet.
I once knew of a woman rebel who wrested political power
from her vagina.
Singing softly to herself
after having just brokered a truce with her own motherhood,
she was captured and brought to a camp
where soldiers
raped her intellect.
(By edict of martial law,
each of the perpetrators have already raped two,
mostly civilians)
Before they cut off her breasts
and blasted her genitals,
she said:
“Tell your commander-in-chief,
I take better care of my brood
than fathers who rape
the motherland.”
Her tears were hot seeds that grew
into Children of the soil of all ages
I once knew of a die-hard supporter who raped his wife.
He loved her as much as he loved his possessions
for which she should be grateful,
and unquestioning,
as Duterte is to God.
Needless to say, when the woman went to the barangay hall
to complain
the desk officer helpfully put down
MISUNDERSTANDING
on the charge sheet.
I once knew of a ravishing woman,
the curve of her legs sublime
her pink pouty lips inviting
her breasts just the right graspable mound.
Plastered on a glossy billboard on EDSA
she invites millions to lust
she invites millions to rape
but she never was.
They think it’s because she was made of tarpaulin,
but the truth is,
they couldn’t rape her
as she was already married to an old magnate
who charges a users’ fee
for every gaze and wet dream.
Unaware that rape
has
nothing
to
do
with
sex
or lust
they go home penniless, dejected,
seizing the steering wheel
of man’s debased power.
I once knew of a man who held so much power in his hands
he could never be raped.
But he could have sex with any woman he wanted
as long as
he kissed them on the mouth
and gagged their vaginas.
So he had them stuffed with taxpayers’ money
delivered promptly
every 30th of the month.
And whenever those razor-edged bills
scratched
the insides of their cervix,
the women told themselves
it isn’t the same
as the shard
of a broken beer bottle
as a bloodied broom handle
as a knife liberally pressed
against another woman’s throat.
Though this man freely distributed his affection,
he frequently stole his orgasms
(it was his personal style)
and even bankrolled
his best buddy’s senatorial run
with their unlimited supply.
Once, he ordered all the beautiful Filipinas on stage
to tell rape jokes
to groups of ugly men all day.
He was amazed that there were so many of them—
women like a school of miniskirted fish.
Surely they knew what was coming.
“This country is full of predatory sharks.
I am here to protect you,
I am your father
your lover
but could you perhaps lose a tooth or two?” he said,
his laughing face dark and hard
as the penis that failed him.
The women all became toothless, but got raped anyway.
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