Workers’ rights must be protected by a better BBL

With the mounting clamor for a revision of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, we likewise sound our call for an amendment to the BBL draft so that the rights of workers are better protected under such a law. Along with our support for peace in Mindanao, we demand that the rights of workers—Moro, Christian or lumad—in the Bangsamoro territory be respected and enhanced, and that these be incorporated and enshrined in the enacted BBL.

Specifically we call for amending Section 9, Article IX of the BBL draft which states: “The Bangsamoro government shall guarantee all the fundamental rights of all workers to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right to strike, in accordance with law to be passed by Parliament…” (underscoring supplied)

Making labor rights subject to the laws yet to be enacted by the Bangsamoro parliament opens a loophole that could be exploited to diminish the workers’ freedoms. This is a real threat since we know there is intense lobbying by employers’ groups to degrade labor rights, among them the security of tenure, so as to promote contractualization in the Bangsamoro territory.

We are aware that foreign investors, American and Malaysian in particular, are partnering with Filipino business for prospects in mining exploration and agricultural plantations in the Bangsamoro territory. Capitalists, whether foreign or domestic, should not be allowed to corner the dividends of peace for their exclusive profits by sacrificing the rights of workers, whether Moro, Christian or lumad.

We also support the call for the recognition of the rights of the indigenous peoples in the proposed Bangsamoro territory and the full inclusion of provisions of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act in the BBL. Indigenous peoples such as the Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan-Manobo and Erumanen ne Menuvu live in the areas to be absorbed in the Bangsamoro.

Amid the outcry over the Mamasapano incident, we support a peace settlement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and oppose the calls for all-out war. Peace and development in Mindanao are in the interest of the working class and indigenous peoples. But social justice must come with social progress, thus our call for the protection of the workers’ and indigenous peoples’ rights in the Bangsamoro.

—WILSON FORTALEZA
spokesperson, Partido Manggagawa
[email protected]