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SENTRO believes that working people are not puppets to be used by oligarchs for their political interests. We are human beings with our own issues, concerns and collective aspirations for our families and country.
We will not be deceived by the false promises being offered us by the likes of Defensor, Marcoleta and Remulla regarding turning over ABSCBN’s operations to workers. We see this as nothing but a ploy aimed at sowing division among progressives and supporters of ABSCBN.
While our social vision dreams of a sociey governed and self-managed by working people, we have no illusions that this will come about through the benevolence of the ruling elite. How can we believe the words of the same people resonsible for robbing 11,000 ABSCBN workers of their jobs and the continous disregard for the welfare of the ordinary people we have been living through for decades?
If these politicians are indeed sincere in their proposal for worker’s management of ABS-CBN, then why did they wait for its closure and the massive public backlash that followed to present the idea?
Labor had already proposed a systematic solution to longstanding labor issues in ABSCBN and the broader broadcast industry through a pro-worker franchise. Such a franchise would have included explicit provisions that protect worker’s rights and guarantee two seats in the board of directors – already these are steps towards preparing workers for self-management. Why didn’t the three representatives propose their current suggestion during the hearings where it would have directed the flow of the franchise committee’s discussion?
SENTRO, together with the National Alliance of Broadcast Unions (NABU), and the ABSCBN rank-and-file employee’s union (ABSCBNRFEU) refuse to be made pawns by oligarchic interests. We will continue to demand the reopening of ABSCBN within the broader context of our fight for press freedom and worker’s wefare against tyranny, authoritarianism, and oligarchy.
Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa Progresibong Manggagawa 