DESPITE becoming a political hot potato for those aspiring for national and congressional posts, support for the Reproductive Health bill as well as other pro-women advocacies should be added to the preconditions for choosing candidates in the coming May 10 elections.

This was underscored by the Alliance of Progressive Labor-Women as it joined today’s celebrations of the International Women’s Day led by the Martsa ng Kababaihan coalition, the local counterpart of the World March of Women, a global networking of feminist and other grassroots organizations.

“To gain the vote and cooperation of the organized women and their allies, political aspirants must guarantee that they will promote and implement women-specific concerns, along with particular demands of other basic sectors of society, such as the workers and peasants,” Marlene Sindayen, APL-Women spokesperson, said.

Thus, the APL added, the voters should pick candidates who would defend and uphold the interests of the majority, which could be seen in their respective stand on labor, trade union and human rights, agrarian reform, gender equality, foreign debt and international trade, Charter change, political dynasty and warlordism, poverty, education, social services, and many other fundamental issues.

Reviving the ‘murdered’ RH bill

APL-Women warned that politicians who vacillate on their earlier “pro-women” stance would receive equally lukewarm support if not outright rejection from women’s groups.

This situation has emerged following the offensive waged by the Catholic Church hierarchy and “pro-life” groups against the RH bill, which forced many erstwhile backers in the Congress to withdraw their support for fear of losing the “blessing” of the prelates and the purported votes of the religious faithful.

At least two major presidential bets who once expressed support to the RH bill have either toned down or backtracked on their positions, a move obviously to obtain the nod of the religious or pro-life bloc, but whose capacity to vote as one is considered by some to be a myth.

Besieged by threats of endless interpellations and the retreat of several RH supporters among lawmakers, the RH bill was practically killed when the Lower House ended its sessions last Feb. 3, in which the bill was set aside for it was deemed “too contentious and had little chance of being voted on.”

In fact, the different RH bills have been languishing in both chambers of Congress for about a decade now or starting in the 12th Congress (2001-2004) and have been filed or reintroduced to no avail in the succeeding Congresses until the recent 14th Congress.

“It is a testimony of how powerful the forces behind the anti-RH bill are,” observed the Akbayan party-list, one of the consistent proponents of House Bill No. 5043 or the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act, a consolidation of four related HBs in the House of Representatives.

Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, who is vying for a Senate seat in the May polls, explained that contrary to its “narrow-minded” detractors, HB 5043 actually aims to “uphold and promote respect for life, informed choice, birth spacing and responsible parenthood in conformity with internationally recognized human rights standards.”

She added that it also seeks “to guarantee universal access to medically-safe, legal and quality reproductive health care services and relevant information even as it prioritizes the needs of women and children.”

If elected to the Senate, Hontiveros-Baraquel vowed to revive a version of RH bill in the Senate, which will complement with the Lower House version, which in turn will be steadfastly supported by the incoming Akbayan representatives.

“We will not stop until a consolidated House and Senate bills are finally passed into an RH law,” the Akbayan solon stated.

Penalize the perpetrators, save the prostituted

APL-Women is also pushing for the next 15th Congress to re-file the Anti-Prostitution bill, which, like the RH bill, was unceremoniously sidelined by the current Congress.

This proposed law intends to decriminalize and rehabilitate the victims – the prostituted women, children as well as males – and to strictly punish both the customers and pimps, especially the sex traffickers.

In the 1990s alone, there were about half a million prostitutes in the country, according to the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia/Pacific (CATW-AP), which confirms a similar study of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Prostituted women and children are very vulnerable to the dreaded HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), unwanted pregnancy, violence, harassment and extortion from sex predators, syndicates, unscrupulous police and government officials, and even rape and murder.

“Prostitution is one of the worst forms of violence against women,” Sindayen of the APL-Women pointed out. “It commodifies women and children and perpetuates the false notion that men have a right to our bodies,” she added.

“We have to tackle the socioeconomic roots of prostitution, which includes poverty caused by the unjust distribution of wealth in the society,” Sindayen said. “But at the same time,” she stressed, “we have to forcefully cut the demand for prostitution by penalizing the buyers – the perpetrators themselves – and the business – the sex traders, club and brothel owners – which sustains the system of prostitution.”

March vs injustice, including Gloria

Coinciding with the IWD is the World March’s global campaign this year called the Third International Action, which include opposing the “privatization of nature and public services,” militarism, workplace discriminations, and all forms of violence against women (VAW).

Adopting that themes in the Philippines, the Martsa ng Kababaihan likewise called for fighting sexism, especially the discrimination based on gender or against women; the neoliberal trade policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that benefit only the corporate elites; the militarism that pervades the country and strangles the citizenry; and the corrupt and despotic regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Unfortunately, while the country has a woman president, her rule is illegitimate and remains the epitome of ‘macho politics’ and where poverty and misery of the majority, including women, have worsened,” the APL-Women declared.

Quezon City. Groups working on environmental health
and labor concerns called for an impartial investigation of a toxic
incident in Bauan, Batangas last Tuesday that killed three workers and
forced at least 2,000 residents to flee for safety.

The Alliance of Progressive Labor and the EcoWaste Coalition, in a
joint statement, sought for a just probe and prosecution of those
responsible for the chemical tragedy as they urged the various
government agencies, particularly the Environment, Labor and Health,
to strengthen existing policies and programs on occupational safety
and health to prevent exposure, injury and death from toxic and
hazardous substances.

“Many of our workers are not aware of the risks and dangers of toxic
and hazardous chemicals in their work environment. Thus the need for
expanded programs that will promote chemical safety education among
workers, provide adequate compensation and rehabilitation in case of
work-related exposure to chemicals, and encourage industry shift to
clean production,” said Josua Mata of the Alliance of Progressive
Labor, adding that the company behind the Bauan incident should be
investigated and held accountable.

“To safeguard labor and community health, we urge industries and
businesses using chemicals that are capable of causing harm to people
and the environment to duly notify their workers and adjoining
communities and to implement a chemical accident prevention program,
including toxics use reduction and substitution, and an emergency
response plan in case anything go wrong,” said Manny Calonzo of the
EcoWaste Coalition.

The switch to clean production and the implementation of various
measures to minimize, if not eliminate, the use of highly hazardous
substances to prevent chemical accidents and exposures is in line with
the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM),
the APL and the EcoWaste Coalition stated.

SAICM, which the Philippines and over a 100 countries adopted in 2006,
provides an overall strategy and plan of action to strengthen
chemicals’ policies and prevent harm to public health and the
environment due to exposure to chemicals and other toxic substances.

The groups also observed that the Bauan toxic incident should prompt a
review of the government’s “Medium-Term National Occupational Safety
and Health Plan 2005-2010” and lead to proactive interventions
targeting vulnerable workers and communities, including those employed
in the informal economy who have least access to safety information.

The groups further noted the need to strengthen the Zero Accident
Program of the Occupational Safety and Health Center under the
Department of Labor and Employment and expand its implementation to
all geographical regions and economic sectors, but with particular
emphasis on workers that are most vulnerable to chemical exposure and
harm such as the agricultural, industrial, mining, construction and
waste workers.

On Tuesday, workers Junnel Almohera, Charmeil Allego and a certain
“Waray” were killed after being exposed to toxic fumes from a barge
undergoing repairs in Barangay Santa Maria, Bauan. Three other
workers, namely Roger de la Peña, Guilberto Liverca, and Jayson
Rodolfo, also got poisoned, but luckily survived.

The toxic fumes forced Bauan authorities to declare a state of
emergency in the municipality that saw at least 2,000 residents of
Barangays Santa Maria, San Miguel, San Pedro and Baguilawa being
evacuated to safety.

Statement of Right to Know Right Now! Network

At the resumption of session last Monday (18 January), we marched to the House of Representatives with a rally contingent of 1000 to call on our House of Representatives to stand for Freedom of Information. With Committee on Public Information Chairman Bienvenido Abante, Jr., Vice Chairman Eduardo Zialcita, Committee TWG Chairman Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, and Minority member Rufus Rodriguez, we met with Speaker Prospero Nograles to appeal for the immediate constitution of the House Panel to the Bicameral Conference Committee on the Freedom of Information Act.

We were not frustrated. The final act of Congress before it adjourned for the day was the naming of the following members to the House Panel: Rep. Bienvenido Abante, Jr. (Chairman), Rep. Eduardo Zialcita, Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla, Rep. Rodante Marcoleta for the Majority, and Rep. Joel Villanueva and Rep. Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales for the Minority.

On Wednesday, 20 January, the Bicameral Conference Committee met at the Senate to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of House Bill 3732 and Senate Bill 3308. Present were Senators Alan Peter Cayetano (Chairman) and Juan Miguel Zubiri for the Senate Panel, and Representatives Abante (Chairman), Zialcita, Tañada, Antonino, and Cruz-Gonzales for the House Panel.

We congratulate the conferees present for discharging their legislative work with efficiency and dispatch. Noting that the Senate Committee on Public Information used the House Bill as starting point, the two panels agreed to focus their discussion on the amendments introduced by the Senate. Even as these amendments were meant to address remaining legitimate concerns raised by stakeholders and by Senators, Representatives Abante, Zialcita, Tañada, Antonino, and Cruz-Gonzales still took the responsibility and care to ask further clarifications, and to introduce further refinements and improvements. The result is a reconciled bill that is as much a House as it is a Senate version.

With the Bicameral Conference Committee Report approved on the same day, Freedom of Information is back on track.

We look to the Senate and to the House of Representatives to complete the final legislative actions on the bill this week. With efficient work from the Senate and House Committee secretariats, the Senate Panel has already signed the Bicameral Conference Committee Report and we only await the signatures of the House Panel.

We look forward to the prompt filing of the signed Report and to its distribution to our Senators and Representatives. We eagerly await immediate action by each House on the Bicameral Conference Committee Report. For a few minutes of session on Tuesday or Wednesday (26 or 27 January), we count on our Senators and Congressmen to set aside political contentions that go with the nearing elections, and unanimously ratify the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the Freedom of Information Act.

The Freedom of Information Act will address the substantive and procedural gaps that have long prevented our full enjoyment of our right to information. It will supply a definite procedure for access, enumerate clearly the information that government may validly keep secret, spell out the remedies in cases of denial, impose penalties for unlawful violation of our right to information, require the automatic disclosure of important government transactions, and establish mechanisms for the active promotion of openness in government.

When finally signed into law by the President, we have no doubt that the Freedom of Information Act will be a strategic and most significant contribution of the 14th Congress to the fundamental renewal of public institutions in our country.

Right to Know. Right Now!

Right to Know. Right Now! Campaign Read the rest of this entry…

The 7th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was held in Geneva in the midst of multiple crises, when people all over the world are demanding that governments take decisive action to protect their livelihoods from the dangers of corporate led globalisation. The failure of deregulation and liberalisation that the WTO locks in through its trade regime are all too evident to the ordinary people in the world. That this Ministerial was a non-negotiating meeting, is a reflection of the massive resistance to the WTO trade regime from workers, farmers, fishers and social movements from across the world. Trade ministers did not come to Geneva empowered with a popular mandate to move forward the negotiations. But in an inexplicable but expected disconnect to the realities back home, many of them have called for a speedy conclusion to the Doha Round in 2010.

Fifteen years after its inception, the WTO is further away than ever from an equitable, just, rules-based multilateral trading system that can foster development. Since its launch eight years ago, it has become progressively more evident that the Doha Development Round is completely antagonistic to the real priorities of peoples in developing countries. Instead, the demands of the global powers continue to set the agenda for trade negotiations and are doing so in a climate of fear where the ‘blame game’ has become the order of the day. Any country that is not prepared to support the speedy conclusion of the Doha Round is in danger of being blamed for the failure of the multilateral trading system.

The WTO is not a solution to the multiple crises that the world is facing. On the contrary, evidence shows that WTO trade rules are more a cause of and will exacerbate the current food, financial and climate crises. If the the main purpose of this ministerial meeting was to examine the role of the WTO in the current global economic environment, then governments must:

• immediately halt all negotiations on the Doha Round;
• reverse WTO commitments and reject progressive liberalisation;
• conduct comprehensive development audits of the impacts of WTO trade on local and national economies;
• in collaboration with national constituencies, develop new trade rules that will ensure food sovereignty, financial, economic and environmental security and climate justice;

Governments: listen to your people! Abandon Doha! Confront the Crises!

Endorsed (so far) by:

La Via Campesina

Hemispheric Social Alliance

Kilusang Mangingisda/ Fisherfolk Movement Philippines

Red Brasilera por la Integracion de los Pueblos (REBRIP)

Polaris Institute

ActionAid International

Women in Development in Europe (WIDE)

Transnational Institute

Focus on the Global South

World Development Movement

The Development Fund, Norway

Stop the New Round Coalition Philippines

ATTAC Norway

ATTAC Germany

ATTAC Austria

ATTAC Argentina

Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya

Pambansang Kalipunan ng Makabayang Magbubukid

Alliance of Progressive Labour, Philippines

War on Want

Global Network Asia

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Asia-Pacific

Labour Education Research Network (LEARN), Philippines

Initiatives for Dialogue, Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS)

The Latin American Solidarity Committee of Norway

Institute for Global Justice, Indonesia

The Berne Declaration

Council of Canadians

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Resistanze and Alternative, Mauritius

India FDI Watch

Ecologistas en Accion, Spain

International Gender and Trade Network

REDES–Friends of the Earth Uruguay

MOSIP (Movimiento por el si de los Pueblos)

Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence, Austria

Fair, Italy

Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, India

Leaders of major labor formations in the country today joined the entire country and the world in condemning the massacre in Maguindanao last Nov. 23 that claimed the lives of at least 57 people, including 18 journalists and two government employees who were also union members..

The labor leaders, who belong to a new coalition called KONTRA WTO, demanded that the search for justice must not stop at arresting and jailing all the perpetrators and their mastermind, but must go hand in hand with determined efforts to dismantle the very social structures that breed violence and poverty in this country.

The Maguindanao massacre is a grim reminder of how deadly elite intramurals can be, especially when such feud involves political warlords. So long as there are political warlords who are in command of the “3 Gs” – guns, goons and gold – there will always be other massacres to come.

The labor leaders also reiterated that there must be an end not only to warlordism but also to inequitable structures that nurture and prop them up, adding that these social structures – capitalism and patriarchy, for example – are no less violent as the Ampatuans that thrive on them. In fact, they are deadlier.

KONTRA WTO stated that millions of Filipino workers continue to toil in desperation due to long-term unemployment and underemployment in the country. The jobs here are mostly contractual that are devoid of security of tenure and benefits and with very low wages, it added.

Many are pushed to find jobs abroad, only to find that they are victimized by illegal recruiters, KONTRA WTO said.

It added that women are the hardest hit as many of them are relegated to jobs that are dirty, demeaning and dangerous, and they usually earn less than men, and some even end up in prostitution and sexual trafficking.

These problems resulted from the flawed market-oriented policies that the ruling elites have pursued for more than three decades now. The increasing poverty and hunger and the worsening violence against women in the country are testaments to the dismal failure of this economic model, KONTRA WTO explained.

But rather than admit failure, market fanatics who control the country’s economic policies are hell bent on pursing more “free trade” as the solution for, rather than cause of, the current economic mess. Worse, their market-oriented “solutions”, like “carbon trading”, have dominated debate on how to solve climate change. Rather than cut carbon emissions, these false solutions have only succeeded in providing rich countries more rights to pollute our planet.

If the economic structures consign the majority of our workers to poverty, the political structures trap them in a situation of powerlessness. Thus, to keep their hold on power, the ruling elites are corrupting the electoral system. Money-politics have rendered elections in this country almost meaningless.

Warlords, like the Ampatuans, thrive in a situation where there is poverty and powerlessness, their brazenness intensified by the climate of impunity created by the Arroyo regime when it unleashed total war against political dissent.

KONTRA WTO believes that it is high time for Filipinos, especially the organized labor, to push forward for more transformative policies.

These issues will be highlighted by KONTRA WTO during their march to Mendiola on Nov. 30 to coincide with the 146th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, the Filipino working class hero, as well as the start of the WTO’s 7th Ministerial Meeting in Geneva.

KONTRA WTO is a labor-led multisectoral coalition calling for the “sinking or shrinking” of the World Trade Organization and for the country to abandon its decades-old adherence to failed market-oriented policies.

KONTRA WTO is composed of the labor groups Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Makabayan, Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawang Pilipino (KPMP), Partido Manggagawa (PM) and Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), as well as the Stop the New Round Coalition, World March of Women, Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), peasants, youth and urban poor organizations.