Kentex inquiry by House Committee on Labor and Employment chaired by Cong. K. Nograles as attended by Nagkaisa! members

Nagkaisa coalition held a rally to condemn Kentex management poor labor standards that resulted to factory fire killling 72 workers

KIlusan Pres Arthur Juego spearheads spray painting of Kentex factory

NAGKAISA labor coalition calls on creation of a tripartite labor laws compliance inspection task force

PNOY, nga-nga sa mga manggagawang biktima ng sunog - Ensure health and safety of workers

The lives and the scathing injury of KENTEX workers are the heavy price for the complete breakdown of government’s labor laws enforcement and for the employers’ patent disregard to the mandatory laws on wages, social protection benefits and the statutory basic workplace safety guidelines.

The KENTEX factory workers’ deaths depict the abominable culture of indifference among many public servants and profit-oriented employers to enforce existing guidelines that uphold workers’ basic rights and well-being.

Therefore, we, the undersigned convenors of the NAGKAISA Labor Coalition, collectively call on Labor Secretary Baldoz to establish a tripartite "Task Force Valenzuela" (TFV) to undertake a surprise sweep and unannounced inspection of factories and plants in the City of Valenzuela to crack down on sweatshops.

In the light of the tragedy that befell our fellow workers in KENTEX, we believe that it now becomes imperative to verify employer compliance with all existing labor laws and safety standards, fire and building structure standards and to determine compliance with all other city requirements for the issuance of business permits and operational licenses.

Justice must now not just be for the KENTEX dead and their families but also for the countless workers nationwide who labor under the same pakyawan system or through unregistered and unregulated labor manning agencies, to be deployed without any statutory benefits, least of all minimum wages, into firetraps where their lives are sacrificed on the altar of profits. Disposable lives and in the case of the KENTEX workers, thrown away.

We strongly believe that the immoral and illegal activities of the KENTEX owners are actually widespread in Valenzuela, and the inspections should begin in the very factory neighborhood where the fire occurred and with those firms also serviced by the unregistered manning agency. The inspections should also cover those firms that undertook voluntary self-assessments of their labor standard compliance. It is never the best way to enforce labor or safety standards by relying on the mere "say-so" of a very self-interested employer and factory owner.

This proposed crackdown in Valenzuela will have national resonance and will hopefully, by making an example of those who will be caught, ensure that labor standard compliance will be honored more in the practice, rather than in its breach.

We urge the DOLE to seize the historical opportunity to render justice not just for the KENTEX workers but to finally break the widespread culture and practice of corporate irresponsibility that made the loss of the workers lives not just immoral but evil and criminal.

Palace toots horn on hunger decline

HUNGER GAMES Street dwellers take their meals on the pavement along a busy road in Manila. Malacañang claimed credit for the improved numbers shown in the latest SWS survey. PHOTO RUY L. MARTINEZ

MALACAÑANG on Tuesday attributed the decline in the number of families experiencing “involuntary” hunger in the first quarter of the year to the success of its social welfare program.

“The welfare of the Filipino people has always been at the front and center of the Aquino administration,” its spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.

The Palace official made the statement in reaction to the release of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing the nation’s hunger rate for the first quarter of the year declining to 13.5 percent (around 3 million families) from 17.2 percent (3.8 million families) recorded in December 2014.

The 3.7 point decline was the lowest in 10 years, the SWS said.

The March 2015 survey showed that 11.1 percent or an estimated 2.5 million families experienced moderate hunger while 2.4 percent or 522,000 families endured severe hunger in the last three months.

The survey was conducted from March 20 to 23 among 1,200 adults nationwide.

“Moderate Hunger refers to those who experienced hunger only once or a few times in the last three months, while Severe Hunger refers to those who experienced it often or always in the last three months,” the SWS said.

The 2015 first quarter hunger survey was released just a week after the first quarter self-rated poverty among Filipino families was reported at 51 percent, a point below 2014’s fourth quarter of 52 percent.

The first three months’ self-rated food poverty also dropped to 36 percent from the previous quarter’s 41 percent.

Quality of life

Lacierda said government initiatives, such as the conditional cash transfer program and the expansion of PhilHealth coverage and reforms in basic education, among others, were among the factors that contributed to the decline.

The numbers and the rhetorics, however, did not impress 72-year-old Elena who hops from one fastfood restaurant to another in Intramuros, Manila, to ask for leftovers from diners.

Elena, who claims to have been homeless for almost 40 years, told The Manila Times she is lucky if she gets to eat at least once a day.

Totong, a scrawny 12-year old, was sitting by the entrance of a convenience store along A. Soriano Avenue, also in Intramuros, hoping that office workers and students would take pity on him and spare him some loose change or even a piece of candy.

When asked if he had eaten for the day, the boy replied, “Hindi pa po [Not yet].”

Jennifer, 28, a sidewalk vendor, said that despite her meagee resources, she and her family could still have three square meals a day.

‘Pagpag’

The moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), however, said fewer families experienced hunger because pagpag is now readily and widely accessible to poor families especially in Metro Manila.

Pagpag is Filipino slang for leftover food scavenged from garbage cans and dumps. The word itself literally means to “shake off” and refers to the act of shaking the dirt off of the edible portion of the leftovers. - by CATHERINE TALAVERA REPORTER AND JOEL M. SY EGCO SENIOR REPORTER With JING VILLAMENTE