Grilled Chicken
Department of Labor and Employment
Sec. Arturo Brion is no better than his predecessor Patricia Sto. Tomas who was
also adamantly against giving Filipino workers immediate economic relief.
Brion is advocating a wage increase
for our overseas Filipino workers abroad, but he can’t support a wage increase
for workers here at home. There is something hypocritical about this. Also,
Brion’s boss Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo keeps flaunting that she has put the
economy on the sure road to recovery, but here now he’s saying that a miniscule
P125 wage increase for all workers will destroy the economy. Brion has no right
to blame the workers’ life and death need for a wage increase for the problems
of businesses and employers. He should turn to the anti-national economic
policies of the Arroyo administration that undermine the capability of small
and medium scale businesses to develop and strengthen. High electricity costs, high oil prices and
transportation costs are more to blame for the problems of businesses, and not
workers’ wage increase demand.
Also, Brion is deliberately omitting something
crucial about the function of the regional wage boards. He’s championing the
regional wage boards and their supposed approval for wage increases in the last eight years; but what
he is not saying is how many companies and employers these same wage boards granted
exemptions to. Over 75 percent of the petitions of all companies and
businesses that apply for exemptions from implementing wage board-granted wage
increases are
approved. Also, an alarming majority of companies all over
the country are guilty of violating minimum wage laws and denying their
workers law-mandated wage-related benefits.
Let’s ask Sec. Brion now – how many
workers actually benefited from the wage increases these wage boards laid down
in the last five years? Records will prove that most companies applied for
exemptions, and thousands more are guilty of violating minimum wage laws. These
are the same companies the DOLE is powerless against persecuting.
The regional wage board’s sole
function is to keep wages low. It is where workers’ wage hike petitions are
shredded and thrown in the waste basket. These wage boards do not listen at all
to workers and their justifications for the necessity of substantial wage
increases, but they accommodate all the arguments of businesses and
employers.
Brion is trying to project himself
as a pro-labor bureaucrat; but what he’s doing is mainly pushing Filipinos –
including teachers, nurses and other professional — to go work abroad as
domestic helpers because the Macapagal-Arroyo government cannot provide them
stable employment with commensurate wages. His opposition to the wage increase
bill exposes his true orientation as labor secretary. He is no different from
his predecessor Patricia Sto. Tomas who, up to the last day of her office,
opposed giving workers immediate economic relief in the form of a substantial
wage increase.
Nakakapundi na sa tuwing mga manggagawa (o sino pang miyembro ng mga sektor ng anakpawis) ang humihingi ng tulong (dagdag sa sahod, mas maayos na serbisyo sosyal, hustisya laban sa karahasan, panlilinlang at pagsasamantala),wala silang matakbuhan ang ang walang kwentang pamahalaan, mabilis pa sa kidlat kung sila’y punahin at patahimikin.
Pang mga negosyante at kapitalista ang nagreklamo (silang mga nasa opisina nilang de-aircon, o lulan ng mga multi-milyong kotse sa galing pa sa Europa), kandarapa ang gobyerno at mga ahensya nito sa paghanap ng paraan para sila’y tulungan, pakinggan, pagbigyan sa kanilang mga makasariling hinaing.
Leche.
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Saw the footage of the PNP beating youth and students who held a rally against the Visiting Forces Agreement yesterday. My stomach clenched with anger at the images (check arkibongbayan.org).
Is it any wonder that this country is heading nowhere? There’s zero tolerance for democratic protests; and the PNP and the AFP have no qualms about beating young Filipinos ’til they’re black and blue. So much for protecting the future of the Philippines and preserving a legacy of political tolerance and genuine democracy.
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Bayan Muna holds is National Convention today. Congratulations and mabuhay ang Bayan Muna!
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Watched Saw I and II on DVD, and my husband and I are convinced that the psychopath in the film is related to Jovito Palparan and the other monsters he has spawned during his bloody career in the AFP.
The psychopath (innocuously named ‘John’) justified his capture and brutal punishment of people using seemingly sane and moral arguments: you have to prove that you deserve to live, that you’re worthy of our existence or you will meet the most horrible, gruesome and painful of deaths: disembowelment by rushing through a maze of razorwire; having a bear trap-like contraption pincushioned by knife-like nails shut tight while your wearing it on your head (think of a grape being crushed between two iron clamps with spikes); inhaling chemical gas which, after two hours, will cause you to bleed from all orifices (gaaaaaah!).
Palparan — and other beasts like Norberto Gonzales and Raul Gonzalez and the creatures of darkness of the AFP — justify the killing of civilians allied with progressive party-lists and people’s organizations by saying that their deaths are collateral damage in the fight to protect democracy and political stability in the country.
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I am in serious need of a haircut. My hair is almost down to my waist and it hardly has style. Not that am vain, but I don’t want to look like a water sprite either, trailing long seaweed-like strands. Am too lazy to go the barber’s, and I cringe at the thought of going to the beauty parlor again.
Maybe I should just start wearing hats again. And bundle my main under a beret or a beanie.
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I know how to grill chicken!!! Am so proud of myself because I didn’t burn anything last night during one of my experiments in the kitchen. I need to get a cookbook. I really need to learn how to cook because it’s embarrassing how often I resort to eating out because I don’t know know to go beyond the can opener.
I want to learn how to cook sinigang and kalderetang baka.
