Invisible Labor’s director Joanne Cesario said that the documentary’s success was a collective effort by the workers’ movement and advocates dedicated to preserving labor history. Reflecting on a 2022 gathering of labor rights advocates, Cesario shared how they recognize the urgent need to mainstream labor history, even within the workers’ movement itself.
Platform workers often fall into debt either as a result of working or in the process of getting into the industry. Dr. Cheryl Ruth Soriano noted that in many cases, workers took out loans to use as initial capital, usually to purchase motorcycles, fuel, shoulder maintenance costs, and so on.
Labor rights activists from Southern Tagalog-based labor center Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU) held a protest action in front of the Department of National Defense (DND) in Quezon City, demanding the release of labor organizers Gavino Panganiban and Maritess David. Both were unjustly arrested on Oct. 27 in Makati. The groups also denounced…
“Like most victims of extrajudicial killings, the police used the story line that he resisted arrest and was killed. But our initial findings reveal that he was killed on purpose. He was considered as ‘enemy of the state’ under the Marcos Jr. administration.”
Since its launch in June 2017, several groups have continuously protested against the government’s public transport modernization program (PTMP). In Cagayan de Oro, a few jeepney operators were forced to sell their units, losing interest in the program.
“If the LTFRB only knows about extensions, what’s stopping the government from just scrapping the whole program instead of repeatedly deceiving and playing us around?”
From previously having 500 personnel, only 23 were retained for the monitoring unit. Sixty of the retrenched employees filed a complaint to the regional office of CSC in the Western Visayas, which BACIWA responded by declaring their positions “redundant” through an office order. On August 21, 2021, the CSC ordered the reinstatement of 60 employees “without loss of seniority and shall be entitled to full pay from the time of their separation until actual reinstatement.”
“There is nothing new for workers in Bongbong Marcos’ ‘Bagong Pilipinas’. Workers still face repression, illegal retrenchment, and other forms of exploitation.”
“Many of the dismissed employees had been with the company for years, contributing to its growth and stability,” said Fajardo, emphasizing that “the layoffs are a clear attempt to weaken the union and silence workers’ voices.”
For a breadwinner in a five-member family in Metro Manila, this falls short of P686.49, as the family daily living wage in NCR is P1,190, according to the economic think tank IBON Foundation.
Minimum wage earners in five regions earned less than P300 a day in January 2023, and less than P310 in 2024, after inflation.