Workers back Casiño, to campaign on days off

INDEPENDENT senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño poses with children of workers in General Santos City during a recent sortie there. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—Independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño found support from the labor sector, specifically from rank-and-file employees at the Cavite economic zone.

Calling themselves the “Workers for Teddy Casiño” (WFTC), union members of companies in Cavite pledged to spend their days campaigning for Casiño, the lone senatorial candidate of the Makabayan Coalition.

The Solidarity of Cavite Workers (SCW), an alliance of labor unions, convened the WFTC to lead the campaign for Casiño in Cavite. It was launched on March 15 and was attended by at least 200 trade union members.

WFTC spokesperson Jesus Piandong said workers will spend their days off to campaign for Casiño.

“We choose to support Teddy (Casiño) because of his proworker and propoor (stance) and (his being) one of the authors of the P125 across the board (wage hike bill),” he said.

Casiño was a member of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, a national workers’ alliance, before he became a party-list representative.

From the village covered court in Barangay Tejeros Convention in Rosario town where the WFTC was launched last Sunday, Casiño led a workers’ walk to the Cavite Export Processing Zone to woo votes from factory workers.

According to the SCW, there are 60,000 rank-and-file employees in the economic zone alone and at least 954,745 workers, including those from the service sector, in Cavite.

Casiño, who has admitted he did not have campaign funds, tapped other forms of media, for instance the Internet, when he launched a campaign video.