CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Anak Mindanao (AMIN) party-list today expresses alarm over reports that the power crisis that is now plaguing Mindanao will cause the massive retrenchment of workers in the island.
AMIN Rep. Ariel C. Hernandez said the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) should work together and map out mitigating plans/measures to address this coming crisis in the labor sector.
Hernandez also urged the private sector to stop blaming the government for the power woes, stressing that “now is not the time of finger-pointing and laying blame. Now is the time to work together since we are all affected by this shortage of energy in Mindanao.”
“While government addresses the power shortage in Mindanao, the government and the private sector should work together to map out mitigating measures to address the impending crisis in the labor sector,” he said.
Hernandez said that the power crisis has affected all sectors of society, most particularly the workers who daily toil in workplaces despite the brownouts just to make their business employers stay afloat amidst the rising cost of doing business just to earn their daily wages.
“This power crisis is now spawning a host of other problems and the hardest hit sector is those of the daily wage-earners,” he stressed.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) recently warned of “severe” job losses in Mindanao because of the power crisis that continue to cripple down various job-generating sectors in the island.
TUCP Secretary-General Ernesto Herrera said that based on their projections, at least 10,000 workers in farming and fishing sectors, mining, food and wood industries will be affected.
Also to be affected are workers in power-intensive industries such as the steel and cement manufacturing, canning, commercial fishing, food processing, retail trade and telecommunications.
Hernandez said this is because if government cannot find a solution to the power crisis in the short term, businesses will be forced to retrench workers to cope with the rising cost of doing business in Mindanao.
AMIN, number 81 in the ballot, is a party-list group founded in Mindanao to advance the aspirations and dreams of Mindanawons for lasting peace, equity and development. It is among the party-list groups that won seats in Congress since the party-list system was introduced in the country’s political system.
AMIN was formed to effect reforms in the electoral and form of governance in Mindanao and in the rest of the country, in general; promote genuine peace and sustainable development in the country, particularly in Mindanao; and to work for a just and humane economic, political and cultural condition of all peoples, especially the marginalized sector.
In the May 10, 2010 elections, AMIN is seeking to return to Congress to continue pushing for the “Mindanao Agenda.”
And job security are part of this “Mindanao Agenda” of AMIN.
“All businesses in Mindanao are now in a survival mode. But we just cannot let them survive and do nothing for the survival of our brothers and sisters who are dependent on these businesses. They are also in a survival mode now. And we must ensure that both employer and employee survived this crisis now,” he said.
PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
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