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Issue No. 28                        August 26-September 1,  2001                    Quezon City, Philippines

Enter Bayan Muna

Bayan Muna's three nominees were sworn in last week as the new representatives in the 12th Congress and the first to be inducted from the rapidly depleting party-list ranks. Their first few days of office saw them accompanied to work by representatives of the marginalized sectors they represent, standing in Congress' session hall amidst chanting by supporters, and going back to the streets upon the filing of wage hike bills. There's going to be more to come.

By sandra nicolas
Bulatlat.com

Everyone must be waiting to see what comes next. Treading the halls of Congress this past week were, finally, the three nominees of leftist and top-notching party-list group Bayan Muna: Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran and Liza Maza, all noted radicals.

The three were accompanied to the Batasan Pambansa's South Wing lobby on Monday, Aug. 20 by some 100 activists and leaders of sectoral mass organizations and welcomed by a number of congressional staff. At around 4:30 p.m., the three stood on the rostrum and were sworn into office in open session by House Speaker Jose de Venecia as the other congressmen, supporters from congressional staffs and the secretariat, and the gallery stood and applauded. The gallery also chanted Bayan Muna slogans, breaking session hall decorum to the dismay of security personnel.

Minutes later and after much congratulatory hand-shaking from the congressmen on the session hall floor, Representatives -- and seatmates -- Ocampo, Beltran and Maza settled into their chairs as the House speaker went on with the business of the day. Upstairs in the South Wing's stratospheric 6th floor and beside the staircase were their three adjoining and still only partly furnished rooms.

Historic re-entry

Bayan Muna marked history last week as the only second leftist party to enter Congress as a defined political force following the ill-fated Democratic Alliance booted out of Congress during the post-war Roxas administration in 1947. The swearing-in came after a controversial delay of nearly two months while the Supreme Court and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) belatedly reviewed the qualifications of groups who joined in the party-list polls.

"Our victory signals the entry of the Left once again into Congress, a known bastion of conservatism," Ocampo, Bayan Muna president and former spokesperson of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said. "But we remain first and foremost mass leaders who will take our cue from the progressive mass movement. Our work in Congress is an extension, a component of the democratic mass movement which for decades-long has fought for the issues of the most oppressed of our people."

Beltran, chair of the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May 1st Movement), added, "Our entry into Congress diminishes, if not surmounts, the stigma against leftist groups. The people did not dismiss us as plain leftists and shunned our party. On the contrary, over 1.7 million put their trust in us and accepted us based on the issues and principles we stand for."

"We are very glad that the wait is finally over," Maza, secretary-general of the militant women's group Gabriela, said. "Now the hard work begins: translating the people's agenda into legislative measures. We will not fail our people."

Topping Bayan Muna's agenda are urgent issues like the P125 daily minimum wage hike, P3,000 across-the-board wage increase for government employees, a moratorium on the demolition of urban poor families' homes and rampant land conversion, the suspension of privatization of government corporations, an omnibus women's code, the abolition of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC), a ban on genetically-engineered crops and food products, the impact of GATT-WTO-related measures, debt relief and the speedy trial of former president Joseph Estrada for plunder.

Back to the streets

The following day, Bayan Muna filed their first bills. House Bills No. 2605 and 2606 seeking a P125 nationwide across-the-board wage hike for private sector workers and a P3,000 monthly wage hike for government employees, respectively, were principally authored by Beltran and co-authored by Ocampo and Maza.

The three representatives returned to more familiar territory and joined a kilometer-long human chain in the streets surrounding the Batasan Pambansa formed by members of militant organizations KMU, Wage Increase Solidarity, Courage and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.

"Generally, mixed feelings" was how Ka Satur, as he has long been known in the mass movement and how he is still comfortable with being called, described how they felt during their first week in Congress. "A bit uneasy because it's a new environment."

'Unfamiliar'

Ka Liza agreed: "It is unfamiliar territory. On our first day we felt pressure but the leaders and members of the sectoral organizations were there and that gave me strength. Nevertheless the members of the House welcomed us with great, well, interest and the staff with much warmth." The nominees' legislative staff also shared how many of the employees would, sometimes shyly, even ask for autographed pictures of the Bayan Muna representatives.

For his part, Ocampo noted "There were three types of receptions from the other representatives. There were those who were very enthusiastic in welcoming us...(laughs) those who were visibly plastik (phony)... and some who kept their distance."

Bayan Muna, it seems, has to grapple with the sometimes strange political calculations to be made within Congress. Ocampo said "Our entry is slow in terms of getting into committees. Our basic dilemma is that we want to stay independent but the rules require us to align with either the majority or the minority. This was not resolved in our first week. We are still trying to find the way for us to best assert our independence and advance the interests of the marginalized sectors we represent."

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