The Churchpeople-Workers Solidarity, an organization that promotes the rights of workers, called on President Rodrigo Duterte to exert efforts to help the labor sector in his remaining days in office.
In a statement, the group lamented how the president seemed to have forgotten his campaign promise to end the practice of “contractualization” and to improve labor conditions.
Duterte also promised free land distribution, but the group said “not only has he failed to implement a genuine land reform program, he has also cracked down on those who dared to fight for it.”
The group also scored the killings of workers, farmers and fisherfolk.
“President Duterte’s campaign slogan promised the Filipino people that ‘change is coming,’” read the group’s statement.
“Five years would have been more than enough to fulfill that promise. However, the promised change never happened,” it added.
“With one more year in office, can we still expect fundamental changes to happen, especially now that the 2022 election is looming?” said Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, chairman of the group.
He appealed to the president “to address the workers’ woes” and “let justice prevail and truly serve the interest of the Filipino working people.”
“Perhaps, he may still redeem himself if he takes our challenge to put the dignity of the human labor at the center of his efforts in his last year as president,” said the prelate of San Carlos in the central Philippines.
