Members of Kalipunan ng Damayang Maralita (Kadamay) camp out along Agham Road in Quezon City, April 30, 2017, in preparation for their Labor Day march today, May 1, 2017. INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
About 2,300 members of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) marched to Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City on Labor Day to demand from President Duterte that he make good on his campaign promise to provide the public with decent jobs and better wages.
Carlito Badion, Kadamay secretary general, pointed out that 10 months into the Duterte administration, its promise of change and progress had yet to be felt by the public. In fact, he said poverty remained a key problem in the country, as shown by the latest Social Weather Stations survey that found 50 percent of Filipinos considering themselves as poor.
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“It’s because he continues to follow neoliberal policies. What he needs to do is to create an environment where the public could have decent jobs and better wages,” Badion said.
Among Kadamay’s demands in this year’s celebration of Labor Day is for the government to set the minimum daily wage at P750 for private workers and monthly wage at P16,000 for government workers. The group noted that while Metro Manila’s minimum daily wage of P454 is the highest in the country, this is still “not enough” to ensure a good life for the average Filipino family.
Over 34,000 jobs are being offered on Monday by the Department of Labor and Employment in its nine job fair sites throughout Metro Manila, but Kadamay president Gloria Arellano slammed the initiative as mere “decoration” and “distraction” to their movement.
She pointed out that only a few get jobs in such fairs because employers note of the applicants’ skills mismatch. She noted that what would truly serve the unemployment problem in the country is the passing of the comprehensive agreement on socioeconomic reforms, which is a component of the government’s peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Arellano said that the agreement would pave the way not only for genuine agrarian reforms but also national industrialization.
To ensure that Kadamay’s march will not hamper traffic along Edsa, Quezon City Police District head Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said they would be guiding the protesters until they reach Welcome Rotonda from Agham Road, where they had camped out since Saturday.
As of 7:30 a.m., police estimated the Kadamay protesters at about 2,300. CBB/rga