PHOTO ESSAY
Face-off after 1017
This year’s Labor Day
rally in Manila was the first big demonstration since the Supreme Court
declared the dispersals of mass actions under Presidential Proclamation
No. 1017 as unconstitutional. As if to underscore the intensity of the
economic crisis at present, the May 1 activity was not for workers alone.
Other sectors went there to show how they are affected by the most
pressing concerns affecting workers.
PHOTOS BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
TEXT BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
This year’s Labor Day
rally in Manila was the first big demonstration since the Supreme Court
declared the dispersals of mass actions under Presidential Proclamation
No. 1017 as unconstitutional.
As if to underscore
the intensity of the economic crisis at present, the May 1 activity was
not for workers alone. Other sectors went there to show how they are
affected by the most pressing concerns affecting workers.
From the youth
sector, recent college graduates showed up to tell of how threatened they
are by the prospect of unemployment. Migrante International decried
government’s practice of resorting to labor export instead of job
generation as the means of addressing the unemployment problem. There were
also labor leaders from other countries – many of whom are here for the
International Labor Solidarity Mission (ILSM) – who came to protest the
killings of Filipino union leaders.
Of course, the
workers’ children would not let themselves be beaten in the “game,” and
also went there to join in their parents’ long-standing call for a
legislated P125 across-the-board, nationwide wage increase. Organized
labor has been pushing for the P125 wage increase since 1999, and workers
need it now infinitely more than they did seven years ago.
But the rally was not
for wages alone. The ralliers also took potshots at the government
campaign to revise the Constitution through so-called “people’s
initiative,” as well as the illegal detention of Anakpawis (Toiling
Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran.
Cultural groups were
also there, to keep the ralliers’ spirits high amid the excruciating heat
that threatened to dry up even the sweat from their foreheads.
The ralliers were
also treated to speeches from a number of famous personalities. These
included the new idol Maria Theresa Pangilinan, who only a few weeks
before had created a stir by heckling President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at
the graduation rites of her alma mater, the
Cavite
State
University (CvSU). Former Vice President
Teofisto Guingona, Jr. was also there.
The ralliers
converged at the Liwasang Bonifacio from various assembly points in
Manila, where they held a three-hour program.
After that, they
tried to march to the foot of the Don
Chino Roces Bridge (formerly the
Mendiola Bridge), a few meters from the presidential palace, but were
stopped by anti-riot police at the corner of C.M. Recto Avenue and Nicanor
Reyes Street. They engaged the police in a brief face-off before being
allowed to hold a short program there.
Bulatlat
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