Free MRT rides on Labor Day ‘revolting’, says worker group

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The free rides of the  Metro Rail Transit (MRT) for the public this coming labor day is “simply revolting” and “insulting,” a labor group said Friday.

“Free MRT rides for the worker should not even be considered privileges but a mere pittance. It is nothing but crumbs from the bountiful feast of shrewd capitalists and the elitist government,’’ Gie Relova, secretary General of Bukluran ng Mangagawang Pilipino said in a statement.

Relova was reacting to the announcement  of  Labor SecretaryRosalinda Baldoz that all public and private sector employees should be granted free MRT rides on May 1, Labor Day.

“For Baldoz who chose to honor the Filipino workers with “special privileges” such as free MRT rides on the only day of the year where the true economic engineers and producers of all social wealth is extolled for his back-breaking labor is clearly an insult,” she said.

Relova said the privileges were “meager, not a new idea, and very limited” adding that Baldoz is unconsciously inciting Filipino workers to sedition.

“It did not even come from the DOLE but from the DOTC and was not a brand new idea, but was introduced under the term of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and most probably less than a hundred thousand workers based in Metro Manila only can avail of it, out of the 40 million-strong national labor force,” she said.

She likened the free MRT rides of Baldoz as against the workers’ demands, citing the Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ, who after being nailed to the cross under the blistering sun, said “I thirst. Roman soldiers responded by giving him vinegar instead of water to ease his suffering.

Meanwhile, there has been no word yet from Malacanang if the the President would announce non-wage benefits this coming Labor Day.

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