Mindanao workers of an agricultural company hold protest in Makati

Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Suyapa Farm (NAMASUFA) in Makati. (Photo by Aldyn Soriano/Philippine Canadian Inquirer)

Over 200 workers of an agricultural company called Sumifru Philippines Corporation assembled on Friday, January 18, along Paseo De Roxas and Makati Avenue to protest in the streets of Makati City to demand regularization and to get a collective bargaining agreement.

Protesters held placards with the company’s name following words that said ‘Kontraktwal na paggawa, gawing regular‘ (regularize contractual labor) and called on Paul Cuyegkeng, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, to abide the law.

The workers under the union Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Suyapa Farm (NAMASUFA), assembled in front of the company’s main office in the morning then marched to Lawton.

According to the union’s president, Paul John Dizon, the rallies from Compostela, Compostela Valley started around October 2018.

He said that their group agreed upon coming to Manila on November last year, deployed themselves along Liwasang Bonifacio in Lawton to continue their rally as it was interrupted on Mindanao due to Martial law.

In an interview with Philippine Canadian Inquirer (PCI), they pleaded the owner as well as the Secretary of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Silvestre Bello III to hear them out on the issue, as Dizon stressed that it is the Philippine government’s job to solve the problems of Filipino workers.

Laborers, as per Dizon, have been working contractual in the company, for about five to 19 years.

He added that some of them are already retired and never got any benefit as a worker.

The NAMASUFA President also said that their protest is their right as a person, as a Filipino citizen, and as a worker. He then mentioned President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing of an executive order (EO) last May 2018, which puts an end to illegal contractualization.

Dizon said, “Hindi nadaan sa mahinahong usap, sa negotiating table, ang mga problema ng mga manggagawa kaya humantong po sa punto na nagwelga na (The problems of the workers were not solved through talks in the negotiating table, that is why we had to protest).”

He also pointed out that if they won’t make noise and action, the government will not hear their plea.

The Sumifru Philippines Corporation is an exporter of banana, pineapple, and papaya that operates in Mindanao.