Workers union support Villar
Nacionalista Party (NP) presidential candidate Manuel Villar Jr. recently received the support of workers’ union Samahan ng Manggagawa sa EMI-Yazaki Independent because of the pro-workers’ platform of the NP bet.
The 3,000-strong workers’ union based in Cavite named political bets at the national and local levels who, according to them, proposed pro-workers’ platforms.
Union President Ricky Pangilinan said they want the next administration “to be supportive of the workers’ plight such as the passing of the long overdue P125 daily wage increase.”
Pangilinan also said they were supporting Villar because he has on his slate Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo and Gabriela party-list Representative Liza Maza as senatorial candidates.
“We are definitely for Satur [Ocampo] and Liza [Maza] and since they are allied [with the Nacionalista Party], we are supporting Villar,” he said.
The Makabayan alliance, of which Ocampo and Maza are members, teamed up with Villar’s slate for the May elections because both groups both agreed on pro-people platforms.
For their Labor Day celebration, an estimated 2,000 union members together with church and peasant groups held a protest march and a voters’ education forum to commemorate the day.
In addition, the group supports NP gubernatorial bet Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla for the local level because Pangilinan said he has already helped the workers in the past “even when he was not in the position.”
Pangilinan said three of their union leaders had been killed under the present administration in Cavite, “and it seems that no justice has been served.”
Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi is the current governor of Cavite, while his son Manny is mayor of Imus, where the Japanese-owned electronics company is located. (With reports from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
