CLARK FREEPORT – The Malabung Partylist is dead-set on improving workers’ socio-economic conditions, starting with moves to increase the minimum daily wage all over the country.
Pampanga Board Member Ferdinand Labung, the party’s first nominee, said that daily wage must be raised from the average current level of P420 to P1,000.
“The cost of living is entirely different now. The (current) minimum wage law is no longer applicable, it is outdated. It needs to be amended. Kawawa ang mga workers,” Labung said during Friday’s Balitaan inside this Freeport.
The media forum is organized by the Capampangan in Media, Inc., in cooperation with Clark Development Corporation.
“Yun pung kinakain nang milyunaryo dapat yun din ang kinakain ng mga mahihirap at mga manggagawa. Bakit po sa ibang bansa nangyayari po yun? Kailangan po dito sa Pilipinas ganun din,” Labung said.
He said that the partylist, which represents mainly the working class, is pushing for two other major concerns, which are sustainable education and sustainable livelihood.
“Government funds must be appropriated and used well for all especially for the poor like tricycle drivers and farmers. These people must have the privilege and their education must be funded by the government,” he said.
Labung, also the national president of Provincial Board Members League, said that there should also be more livelihood opportunities for Filipino families where government must also ensure and protect whatever products that micro entrepreneurs and backyard family businesses produce.
He is also calling for an end to contractualization known as “endo” (end of contracts) that has hampered workers’ regularization in the companies they work for.
For the 120,000 workers in Clark, he said he will explore measures and propose for a scheme where there are dividends or profit sharing between companies and their employees.
Labung is also the treasurer of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, the umbrella organization of all leagues of local government units and locally elected government officials of the country.
