Paging Tim Yap…
For Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo - who sez the media should write about winners and uplifting events
Do we really have an idea what exhaustion is?
Sure, there have been days when I’ve felt that if I sat down, I would not be able to get up again any time soon afterwards. Like my legs have been turned to jelly, and my head feeling slightly enlarged like a mutant onion, my brain longing to shut itself down temporarily.
But when I think of how the poor and working people of this country toil day in, day out and never really head anywhere but towards even greater poverty and want (contact the Department of Labor and the Office of the President for more details as to why this is), I stop complaining and somehow I feel as if I’ve been recharged: anger and outrage are exhausting, but they’re better pick-me-uppers than Lipovitan or Berocca.
Raymund Aguba, 29, a worker of Masuda Phil. Inc. in the Laguna Technopark knew what it was like to straddle the border between wakefulness and sleep; to feel the pull of death which, for slaves like the Filipinos forced to build railways and galleons under polo y servicio, mean rest from neverending physical exertion.
Raymund went to work on July 1st on his usual 6am-2pm shift, but his supervisor told him that he had to continue working that same night, and work the 10pm-6am shift. Raymund complied.
The following morning at 6 am of July 2nd, he was still not allowed to go home because, as the manager reportedly insisted, Raymund had not reached his quota.
By 10 am, he requested a break, but he was not allowed, and was given permission to rest two hours later. After an hour, he was again told to return to work, and not leave till 6pm.
By the time the clock struck 6, Raymund was on the verge of fainting, and soon enough he collapsed. His co-workers rushed to his aid, and sought the assistance of the management on his behalf. The management did nothing , did not even give him first aid and merely told the workers to wait.
After five minutes, Raymund regained consciousness, and the manager, Rod Arevalo, told him to go home. Accompanied by a co-worker, Raymund weakly stood up and began to leave. After a few steps, he fainted again, and was rushed to Balibago Polyclinic.
Five hours later, Raymund died. The attending doctors said that his death was a result of over-fatigue, after working 20 straight hours without sleep.
This is a true story. The factory where Raymund worked is Masuda Phil. Inc. It’s owned owned by Masayoshi Masuda, a Japanese businessman. In operation for the last 10 years, the company manufactures and supplies spare parts for Honda Motors and Honda Cars Philippines. Masuda has a total workforce of almost 800 employees. Of these, only 35 are regular, while the rest are hired on a contractual basis from three different contracting agencies – the TOSH, ENS, and San Roque Agency.
Raymund was a contractual worker hired by San Roque Agency. According to Masuda workers, their supervisors frequently forced them to work beyond the law-mandated 8-hour maximum. The supervisors also reportedly go to the workers’ homes and order them to return to the plant, at the risk of losing their already precarious contractual employment.
Does the media report things such as work-related deaths? Raymund was not the first and it’s dead-certain that he won’t be the last to literally drop dead because of labor exploitation. These things make it to to the tabloids as sensation stories ("Obrero, natigbak sa pagod!", or "Manggagawa, dedbol sa paggawaan ng spareparts!"), and more often than not, the company righfully to blame for the death is not named or, if it’s mentioned, mostly cleared of responsibility.
As if the worker just dropped dead and it was his own fault that he did so.
The DOLE does little or nothing to punish businesses found violating occupational health and safety standard laws. In the course of my work for Anakpawis and KMU ( and for five years, I was also a radio commentator for Buhay Manggagawa, a program over at DZRJ sponsored by the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights or CTHUR and Ugnayang Bayan), I have heard of reports of various violations of OHS: poor ventilation in sweat shops; the lack of fire-escapes and backstairs for immediate evacuation in case of fire; lack of first aid supplies; hazardous work environments where workers deal with poisonous gasses and liquids without the law-required safety equipment like industry-standard gas masks and gloves; rattly elevators which often fail; etc.etc.
And then, of course, the violation of the eight-hour work limit.
The sorry plight of workers is nothing new. It’s not news. But the fact that these things seldom get reported doesn’t mean that they’re not newsworthy, or that they shouldn’t be paid attention to. Imagine being paid P75-P100 a day after working a minimum of eight hours daily! Imagine having to push 500 kgs worth of cut cloth up three flights of stairs because you’re too afraid to use the rickety elevator!
Because of the kind of government in power, and because of the kind of political and cultural system entrenched, there are no Labor Sections or Peasant Page in newspapers. There’s the Lifestyle section and the Business section, and they detail the life and times of the rich and famous, the thieving and the infamous. The public is treated to reports of the bag, shoe and jeans collection of some high-society princess; or the jet-setting adventures of some business tycoon taking a break from the Company (exhausted by all those hours counting the zeroes in his bank account!).
But what about the news about the poor?
They’re often portrayed as drug addicts, sex maniacs and rapists, the dregs of society living in the most god-forsaken corners of the metropolis ; or the recipients and beneficiaries of the ‘generosity’ and ‘charity’ of such institutions as Henry Sy’s foundation or some other bleeding heart institution which is actually backed by the likes of the Lopezes who rob the people blind by jacking electrity rates on regular basis.
The nameless and faceless Filipino poor. Being fed the scraps and leavings of the decadent rich; used as elements in Macapagal-Arroyo’s photo-opportunity shots in front of the foreign press.
Macapagal-Arroyo is such horrible copy! I don’t envy the reporters who have to listen, take down and write about the tripe she and her various spokespersons issue daily. Talk about writing about losers! What right has she to accuse and exhort the media of destabilizing the country when it she, herself who is the main reason why the country remains in economic free fall.
Sure, the Philippine media still has a ways to before it can be truly called a fighting media (strong, independent, credible and genuinely progressive), but at this point, it’s still doing its duty to report the new-worthy events that take place. Isn’t it supposed to be the Fourth Estate — the watchdog of the government.
I find it actually pathetic that she’s taken to accusing the media for the mess she’s in. It’s the media who write about and report the events– not make them. Macapagal-Arroyo image of notoriety is no one else’s fault but her own.She wants to muzzle and gag the media into silence, turn it a mute witness to the swift and critical twists and turns in the country’s political developments.
What Macapagal-Aroyo wants is a brainless media who will only report fluff pieces and the lies masquerading as progress reports as concocted by her spin doctors. This is an outrageous insult against journalists and their respective institutions who seek to perform their duties and responsiblities to the public as best as they can.
The truth is, everyone who speaks out against the corruption, intensifying political repression and burgeoning dictatorship of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is automatically an enemy. Automatically, for Malacanang and its defenders, these people should be silenced.
The president of dubious legitimacy has no moral or legal ascendancy to chastise or criticize the media much less the leaders of the opposition. She has lied, cheated and stolen her way to office, and the country continues to sink deep intp penury because of her corruption. Media should ignore her rants and not be dissuaded, pressured or threatened into stopping their reportage about, say, the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) or other events and activities of various groups that seek to expose the truth about this corrupt admnistration.
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Often I wish I had happier things to write about.
Or rather, I wish the happy or amusing things I can actually write about (playing with my dogs Poofy and Funny, for instance. Or laughing like a loony over the antics of the Madagascar Penguins; or admitting, however grundgingly, that Kris Aquino can actually act well. At least she did in Feng Shui.) were more compelling than the unhappy things I see, hear and experience everyday.
I can probably write like a sap if I wanted to. A documentor of cheerful events and phenomena. Be like Tim Yap of the activist world, why not? Maybe in the next few days I’ll try to write about the good things that happen in the Movement, in this wretched society instead of dwelling on the sadness and anguish.
Like who fell in love with whom. Or how so-and-so looked with her new haircut when she attended the CCTA activity last November 9.
Or how funny so-and-so when he imitated Malacanang spokesperson Ignacio Bunye presenting the ‘fake’ and ‘original’ Hello, Garci CDs. Articles on the latest in Tibak fashions (or where tibaks get their clothes. Shopping for an entire ensemble for under P200!)? or maybe 10 Things an Activist usually has in his/her backpack( Ex. filofax or planner; a second-hand celphone; malong; ballpens; stenopad or notebook; bimpo or tubao; list of emergency numbers just in case he/she get arrested by police; toothbrush and toothpaste; cigarrettes and lighter (if smoker; if not, candy); latest memo from the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) and schedule of activities and rallies.)
Or maybe a list of up and coming young, upwardly mobile (hahaha!) national democrats like LFS chair Vencer Crisostomo, UP DARE spokesperson Mong Palatino, writer/painter Lisa Ito. How activists spend their vacation? Or lifestyle Q&As featuring, um, Dr. Carol Araullo (whom I heard takes care of three cats!); or Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador (who’s a lean, mean videoke machine operator: nang-aagaw ng mike). A visit to Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran’s bedroom (there’s a huge carved/etched portrait of suffering Jesus on his wall: something Ka Bel made while in prison), or how BAYAN secretary-general Nato Reyes learned to play the guitar and his dreams of being in a showdown concert against Paolo Santos.
That’s an idea - an Eventologist for activist activities. Cool.
