Independent Investigation Demanded

DOLE and DMCI hit anew for anti-labor streak

By Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino
July 19, 2015

QUEZON CITY – A LABOR group denounced what they called an “unrepentant and conscious criminal neglect” of the labor department and the Consunji-owned Semirara Mining Corporation (SMC) for the deaths of nine miners after open pit coal mine in Caluya, Antique collapsed on Friday.

It can be recalled that in February 2013, ten SMC employees died when similarly, incessant rains caused a wall in the coal mine to collapse. The coal mining giant and its subcontractors were also found to have violated labor and safety standards then.

“Nineteen lives lost in a span of two years and the undeniable resemblance of the consequences behind these mining disasters is conclusive that both the SMC and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) are unrepentant labor safety violators, treating workers as expendable variables to feed their interests,” said Leody De Guzman of the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP).

“Their repeated and wanton disregard of the threat on limbs, lives and impact on the livelihood of the workers due to the expected cessation of its operations despite their earlier infringements demands nothing less but the severest of punishments,” he added.

The group has also called for an independent investigation to avoid probable collusion between the labor department and the DMCI.

“Despite these work-related fatalities incurred in 2013, the DOLE allowed SMC to resume operations after the “danger has been removed or corrected” and no one was made liable,” De Guzman lamented.

Another DMCI subsidiary the DMCI Homes and their subcontractors were also determined two weeks ago to have violated substantial labor and safety standard infringements at the construction site of the controversial Torre de Manila.

The militant leader was quick to point the accusing finger at the Department Order (DO) 131-13 or the Labor Law Compliance System (LLCS) which was issued in July 2013. To which he claimed was a “symbolical death warrant that has been systematically implemented against the Filipino working class to pursue profit and investments”.

It is believed that a hundred and three workers have been killed and countless injured since its issuance.

De Guzman inferred that, “These mounting occupational deaths are a validation of cost of the government’s partiality to bend labor and safety standards to satisfy corporations’ appetite for profit at the expense of limbs, lives and livelihood of workers”.

The BMP has repeatedly demanded that not unless immediate and drastic reforms including its junking of the said DO and the abolition of contractualization are inperative to avert another Kentex tragedy from ever happening.

“Massive reforms and punitive measures against a repeat offender such as DMCI and the negligent regional labor officials must be the order of the day,” De Guzman asserted.