Why this worker can’t give up the fight

By: Julliane Love De Jesus - 10 years ago

Demonstrators take shelter under a flyover at the Liwasang Bonifacio. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—A worker, who claims that he has been fighting on the streets for workers’ rights most of his life, slammed the ongoing government policy of contractualization.

“What’s the future of Filipinos with contractualization employment?” ‎Pedro “Tata Pido” Gonzales, a fisherman and militant, told INQUIRER.net at the Labor Day protest in Liwasang Bonifacio.

Gonzales, who has been an activist since the time of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, said that nothing changed with the condition of workers in the Philippines from that time until the current administration.

“What the Filipino workers need is a P500 minimum wage considering their living condition,” he said.

“Noong ang nangangalkal ng basura aso, ngayon ta‎o na,” the septuagenarian militant added.

(Before, only stray dogs scavenge for food. Now, even the people scavenge for food [on the streets]).”

In 2004, when Gonzales was the Anakpawis Quezon Chapter chairperson, he was shot by suspected military in front of the Anakpawis office in Gumaca, Quezon province.

“They wanted to silence me… Maingay kasi ako. Pero malas nila, buhay pa rin ako [I’m noisy. But that’s their misfortune because I’m still alive],” he quipped.

A wound Gonzales sustained in a shooting incident at the height of local elections at that time has left him a cripple. But despite his disability, Gonzales vowed to fight for the Filipino workers’ rights, especially in the rural sector.
“I can’t leave the streets. For as long as I can do it, I will fight,” he said in Filipino.

As of posting time, Gonzales and the rest of the demonstrators are holding a short program before marching to their last stop to Mendiola Bridge.