‘Arroyo deserves ‘persona non grata’ title; her attitude towards Filipino workers here and abroad will earn her an international title of being an anti-worker and pro-capitalist President.’
The militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today lambasted anew President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for displaying outright irritation over the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK), the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) organization in Hong Kong who declared her persona non grata among Filipino domestics there over her failure to address the HK government's proposed 20% wage cut for foreign workers.
“We are furious over Arroyo's whimpering on the legitimate grievances raised by OFWs in HK. It is outrageous that she even questioned the Unifil's credibility to stand for the valid judgment of more than 154,000 migrant workers in Hong Kong over her sloppy performance to answer their urgent demands,” said KMU Secretary General Elmer Labog.
“Overseas Filipino Workers would not declare her undesirable in the first place if she had done something noteworthy to oppose the wage cuts and helped the workers insist to the HK government their demands. This issue was raised to her many times before by various labor and migrant organizations but she did not take some time to listen. She is doing her lobby work to the HK government just now because workers are starting to hold protests.”
KMU leaders said that this is not the first time that Arroyo blew her top over complaints raised to her by basic sectors. “Oftentimes she would get annoyed when mass organizations question or hold her responsible over issues concerning the people's welfare, specifically issues raised by workers. She knows very well that being answerable to all sectoral interests is a part of her job as President. She doesn't have the right to whine over the people's dissatisfaction over her functions. If she had done her job well and delivered the people's demands, she would not be criticized at all.”
KMU further said that it is not impossible for Arroyo to approve to 5-10% wage cuts for Filipino domestics in HK since she has the record of being anti-worker and pro-capitalist. "She did disapprove of any wage hike for local workers and government employees this year. She even labeled the demand for a wage increase as anti-labor.
The labor leader further noted that they not only approve Unifil's resolve to declare Arroyo undesirable among migrant workers but also insisted that KMU would also work for labeling Arroyo worldwide as an anti-worker and pro-capitalist President. “Her attitude towards Filipino workers here and abroad will earn her an international title of being an enemy of Filipino workers. We are constantly informing KMU's allied labor organizations in 84 countries worldwide regarding Arroyo's thoroughness of fostering exploitation of workers,” Labog said.
Meanwhile, KMU also derided Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas for appealing to migrant workers to postpone their protests while Arroyo negotiates with the HK governement. "Sto. Tomas has no right at all to stop workers here and abroad from holding protests to broach their demands. For all we know she's very dissapointed that she could not issue an injunction order or an Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) to restrain the migrant workers protests the same way that DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) suppress local workers strikes and rallies."
KMU also gave a Arroyo a word of advice to genuinely learn listening to the people's legitimate demands and concerns instead of just pretending to be doing such. “She shouldn't forget that Estrada learned this lesson in a very painful manner that the people's fury led to his ouster,” Labog concluded.