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If there is one thing clear in this first May Day of Pres. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is UNITY!. Unity, not in the same sense he uttered in his campaign but unity of the trade union movement to demand wage increases amidst rising cost of basic commodities, public services and continuous decline in value of real wage. Besides wages, the trade unions previously divided by their politics were one in calling for an end to contractualization, affordable public services, and rights.

CTUHR joins the celebration of Labor Day.”It is very inspiring to see the trade unions in the country previously divided by their differing politics are in unison to demand wage increases. Afterall, we are all cringing from skyrocketing prices of food and basic necessities,“ CTUHR said in a statementT

It can be recalled that the new administration of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is under immense pressure  locally and internationally, as its predecessor, the bloody administration of Rodrigo Duterte failed on his promises. PRRD’s administration intensified the attacks on human rights.  In fact, recorded thousands of victims of human rights violations including tens of extrajudicial killings of trade union leaders and labor rights defenders.  to remain under Marcos Jr. administration . Marcos Jr kept mum issues of workers’ rights violations while mouthing jobs generation. Red-tagging continues. BBM’s Justice Secretary Crispin “Boying” Remulla  justified red-tagging or terrorist tagging as part of freedom of expression.  The failure of Administrative Order 35 (AO35) as a mechanism of the Department of Justice that was tasked to investigate violations  extra-judicial killings (EJK’s) dismissed of murder cases against the agents of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the extra-judicial killings (EJK) of Manny Asuncion and couple Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista murdered on March 7,2022.

As we mark International Labor Day, let us not forget that BBM’s first year in office is marred by 51 cases with more than 1200 victims of labor rights violations including recent killing of Alex Dolorosa of BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) last April 24, 2023; five (5) arrests and countless cases of unionists facing threats, red-tagging, harassment and intimidation.  

 

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