Militants use Velosos in labor protest rallies

K to 12 assailed

Filipinos will continue to seek greener pastures because their work here can’t provide for their families, said AWU spokesperson Rea Alegre.

“The people need decent jobs and a living wage to ensure that there will be no more Mary Janes that [become] vulnerable to desperation for their family’s survival,” Alegre said.

The different labor groups called for a P16,000 monthly minimum wage.

Student groups under the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in the University of the Philippines (Stand-Up) also joined the protest.

“While acting blindly on its duty to address unemployment, Aquino enforces its labor-export policy to push more Filipinos to seek perilous work opportunities overseas,” LFS national spokesperson Charisse Bañez said.

Some student protesters wore boxes, ribbons and chains to show how the Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K to 12) program allegedly promoted the export of Filipinos.

“For export: Best Domestic Helper, quality assured by Aquino Government,” read a ribbon worn by one student.

The LFS and the Anakbayan youth group demanded the junking of the K to 12 program which they claimed “reinforces the labor-export policy of the country.”

“Aquino uses K to 12 to train students for overseas employment. It reengineers basic education toward directly providing the needs of foreign countries and corporations for cheap labor,” Bañez said.

Red flags

At 4 p.m., the crowd, most of them wearing red and carrying red flags and banners, began moving to Mendiola, carrying with them an effigy of President Aquino called “Commandeath-in-Chief” which was to be burned in what the organizers said would be a much bigger mass action of almost 50,000 protesters Friday night.

In Lapu-Lapu City, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the President did not go to Cebu to avoid the May Day rallies against him in Manila.

“The President’s visit to Cebu was just ‘a new approach’ to celebrate Labor Day,” he said.

“He is the President of all Filipinos. As President, he would like to reach out to our countrymen in as many regions and provinces of the country,” he told a news conference in Cebu yesterday.

It was not the first time that Mr. Aquino has decided to commemorate a national celebration outside Metro Manila.

Last year, Mr. Aquino decided to hold the commemoration of the first People Power Revolution of 1986 in Cebu instead of Manila.