Labor Day protest marches heated but end peacefully

Philippine Daily Inquirer
1:59 am | Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

A phalanx of policemen blocks workers carrying posters of 

“Communist Manifesto” authors Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 

former Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, and former

 Chinese supreme leader Mao Zedong at a rally at the US Embassy 

in Manila. Labor groups marched on Wednesday to demand wage 

increase after President Aquino announced a package of noncash 

benefits on Labor Day. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Except for their overheated rhetoric and the burning of the effigies of President Aquino and US President Barack Obama, which matched the sweltering heat, the country’s workers kept Wednesday’s Labor Day observance peaceful.

So orderly were the marches and rallies in Metro Manila that the protesters had cleared the streets by 6 p.m.

Police reported no untoward incidents in the capital and other parts of the country.

With President Aquino resting in his hometown in Tarlac province, it fell on Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to plead with the workers to give the government more time to deal with their problems. She said that Aquino planned to meet the labor leaders regularly; the next one will be on May 30.

The Catholic Church, in turn, reminded government and business of the primacy of the human person over capital and profit.

In his homily during a Labor Day Mass held at Quiapo Church and attended by the leaders of various labor groups, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle expressed concern about “international trends” in the labor industry where workers are “classified” and their “classifications” are used as bases for their rights.

Equal treatment

He said businesses should not discriminate against but instead treat all workers equally regardless of their classification.

“Whatever is the classification of workers, they are human beings. Their rights are not diminished when they have a different classification,” Tagle said.

But classifying workers violates workers’ rights, he said.

Employers should not classify workers and instead should treat them all equally, he said.

Tagle called on labor leaders and their organizations to be sincere for the good of all workers. He also proposed the elevation of the protection of workers’ tenure to international agencies.

Baldoz said Aquino found the workers’ demands “very reasonable.”

Contrary to some news reports, the labor leaders were not disappointed with the results of their meeting with the President, Baldoz told reporters at a job fair in SM Mall of Asia.

Among the proposals being considered by the government is a suggestion for more tax exemptions for minimum wage earners.

Higher SSS premiums

Aquino, however, called for higher contributions to the Social Security System (SSS) for workers, drawing a sharp response from labor representatives who called the idea “adding insult to injury.”

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares criticized Aquino for rejecting the workers’ demands for wage increases, security of tenure and tax exemptions, which showed, he said, that the President had “no heart for the working class.”

In proposing higher SSS premiums, Aquino noted that the contribution rate had been increased only twice since 1980, while pensions had been raised 20 times.

Aquino wanted the current contribution rate to be increased to 11 percent from 10.4 percent, which would translate to P60 a month for workers earning P10,000.

The President said the increase in contributions would allow SSS members to enjoy higher benefits.

But Colmenares said increasing the SSS contribution would put an additional burden on workers, who already endured a lot of other deductions from their wages.

He said Bayan Muna’s own study showed that the SSS had enough funds to give members higher benefits without increasing the monthly premiums.

According to Colmenares, the SSS has assets worth P343.67 billion as of March 2012, while its annual investment income amounts to P21 billion to P23 billion a year.

The SSS also has collectibles worth P8.5 billion in unremitted premiums as of December 2010, he said.

The SSS also has collectibles amounting to about P14.6 billion from employers who failed to avail themselves of the agency’s amnesty program, Colmenares said.

But the SSS, he added, has yet to file charges against 170,000 delinquent employers who failed to remit their employees’ contributions.

What the workers need is not additional burdens, but additional income, protesters said.

Protests everywhere

More than 11,500 workers marched in Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan and Capiz.

Speakers took turns decrying the labor policies of Aquino and reiterating their demand for a P125 across-the-board increase in the minimum wage.

Workers also marched in Southern Luzon provinces, demanding wage increases and pleading for less deductions from their wages.

Protests were held in cities in Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Quezon and Rizal. Hermenegildo Marasigan, spokesman for the workers’ alliance Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno, said about 10,000 workers joined the marches against low wages and continued “contractualization” of jobs in the region.

Despite the intensity of the workers’ demands, there were no reports of violence.

In Metro Manila, terminated workers of Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel) and their supporters marched across the business center in Makati City to protest what they called “unfair labor practices” at the telco.

Digitel, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the country, is now a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), which is led by businessman Manny V. Pangilinan.

The workers have been picketing PLDT headquarters on Makati Avenue for 21 days since the management’s refusal to implement a Supreme Court decision ordering the company to start talks for a collective bargaining agreement with the workers and reinstate 13 employees it had dismissed in 2005 with full compensation.

There were no untoward incidents. Except for about 30 protesters who sought shelter at first-aid stations, the marches were peaceful, according to Manila Police Director Senior Supt. Robert Po.

Protesters burned 10-foot-tall effigies of President Aquino and US President Barack Obama to symbolize the supposed state of the nation under the Aquino administration.

Welcome but no talk

Politicians running for office in the May 13 elections joined the pleas for worker benefits. They were welcome at labor rallies, but were not allowed to speak.

But United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) senatorial candidate Jack Enrile said the government should keep the door open to an increase in the minimum wage to show that it is truly sincere in saying it protects the rights and welfare of the country’s workers.

Gordon proposal

Enrile said labor groups should continue pressing for reforms and better working and living conditions as the economy continued to improve.

Another UNA senatorial candidate, Richard Gordon, suggested that the government tap the potential of tourism to create new jobs.

Gordon said the government could harness the potential of tourism as a source of jobs if it would allow the full implementation of the Tourism Act of 2009.

Gordon, a former secretary of tourism, said the tourism development law, which he himself authored, had yet to be fully enforced.

He alleged that the implementation of the law has been hampered by concerns raised by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs regarding revenue leakage. He noted that the finance department and the BIR have historically opposed the granting of fiscal incentives as this could lead to revenue loss.

But he said there were clear provisions in the law that give the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority full jurisdiction over the grant of incentives to tourism enterprise zones.—Reports from Leila B. Salaverria, Tina G. Santos, Nancy C. Carvajal and Niña Calleja in Manila; Radyo Inquirer; Maricar Cinco, Shiena Barrameda and Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon; Nestor Burgos Jr., Bernadeth Rosales and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; Tessa Distor and Alex Austria, trainees.

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Bomb suspect's buddies covered for him, feds say

 

By Matt Smith, CNN 

May 2, 2013 -- Updated 0933 GMT (1733 HKT)

(CNN) -- A laptop, some empty fireworks and a jar of Vaseline landed three friends of Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in jail Wednesday, charged with trying to throw investigators off their buddy's trail.

Those are the items federal prosecutors say Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos took from Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in the hours after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, the suspects in the marathon bombings. According to FBI affidavits, they quickly recognized their friend from the pictures.

When Kadyrbayev texted his friend to tell him "he looked like the suspect on television," Tsarnaev texted back "lol" and added, "come to my room and take whatever you want," the affidavit states. Phillipos, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev went to the room, where Kadyrbayev noticed a backpack containing fireworks that had been "opened and emptied of powder," according to the affidavit.

"Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the marathon bombing," the affidavit states.

 

Detained students enjoyed attention

 

 

New Boston suspects in 'world of trouble'

 

 

Three taken into custody in Boston case

 

 

See police detain suspects

 

All three are accused of removing items from Tsarnaev's dorm room after the April 15 bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260. According to the affidavit, they left with the backpack, the Vaseline -- which Tazhayakov believed could be used to make bombs -- and Tsarnaev's laptop.

Read the criminal complaint

By the time they got back to the apartment in New Bedford that Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev shared, the Tsarnaev brothers had been named as bomb suspects, and the three friends "started to freak out," Phillipos recounted after what the affidavit stated had been four previous interviews.

"According to Kadyrbayev, they collectively decided to throw the backpack and fireworks into the trash because they did not want Tsarnaev to get into trouble," the affidavit states.

Investigators found the pack, fireworks and Vaseline in a landfill last week after a two-day search. The complaint doesn't state what happened to the laptop.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, both from Kazakhstan, were already in federal custody on immigration charges. They're charged with obstruction of justice, while Phillipos, a U.S. citizen, is charged with lying to federal agents probing the bombing.

Probe stretches from Boston to Russia 

Wednesday's developments come after more than two weeks of intensive investigation that has stretched from Boston to the restive Russian republic of Dagestan, where the Tsarnaev brothers' parents now live.

Federal officials say investigators remain very interested in talking with Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow, Katherine Russell, about what she may have known about her husband's travel and associations, as well as about any encounters she may have had with the two suspects in the aftermath of the attack.

Latest on the investigation

Russell told investigators that she spoke to her husband after his picture appeared on national television as a suspect, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN on Wednesday. The nature of the conversation remains under investigation, but the sources said there was some concern that Russell spoke with her husband but did not call authorities who were still seeking to identify the men in the photos.

Russell's lawyers had no immediate comment on that report. On Tuesday, attorney Amato DeLuca said Russell "will continue to meet with law enforcement, as she has done for many hours over the past week, and provide as much assistance to the investigation as she can."

Officials say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators his brother was the mastermind of the attack. Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev was influenced toward radical Islam during a six-month visit in 2012 to Dagestan, a region where Russian forces are battling jihadist guerrillas.

 

The case against Tsarnaev's friends

 

 

Giuliani: Friends' silence deadly

 

 

Kevin Spacey: I had to come to Boston

 

Facial recognition failed in Boston

 

The elder Tsarnaev's body remained unclaimed in a state medical examiner's morgue Wednesday. His wife wants his family to claim the body, DeLuca said Tuesday.

Lawyers say Dzhokhar's friends cooperated

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's friends made their first appearance before a judge Wednesday afternoon, when they were read the charges against them and informed of their rights.

All three started at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 2011, along with Tsarnaev. Only Tazhayakov is still enrolled, and he's been suspended "pending the outcome of the case," university spokesman Rob Lamontagne said.

They waived bail requests until a later court date. At one point, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler admonished Phillipos, "I suggest you pay attention to me, rather than looking down."

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev appear in a photograph with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev taken in New York's Times Square during an earlier visit. They were taken into custody last month on charges that they had violated the terms of their student visas, Kadyrbayev attorney Stahl said last week.

All three were questioned at length on April 19, when the manhunt for Tsarnaev was in full swing. Tsarnaev's brother Tamerlan had been killed in a gun battle with police early that morning, while Tsarnaev was captured alive but badly wounded that night. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated for gunshot wounds at a federal Bureau of Prisons medical center in Devens, Massachusetts.

About a month before the marathon attack, Tsarnaev had told Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov "that he knew how to make a bomb," according to an FBI affidavit recounting the charges. Kadyrbayev told investigators that Tsarnaev "appeared to have given himself a short haircut" two days after the bombings.

Carjacking victim recalls experience

Kadyrbayev's lawyer Robert Stahl said his client "did not have anything to do" with the bombing and disputed charges that he tried to obstruct the investigation. And Harlan Protass, who represents Tazhayakov, said his client "has cooperated fully with the authorities and looks forward to the truth coming out in this case."

On Wednesday, he said Kadyrbayev was accused of a "technical violation" of a student visa "for not regularly attending classes." Federal law enforcement sources said at the time that the Kazakh students were being detained "in an abundance of caution" because authorities wanted detailed information on the Tsarnaevs' movements in the weeks and days before the attack.

Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison if convicted, along with a $250,000 fine; the charges against Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov carry sentences of up to five years and $250,000 in fines.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent defense attorney and Harvard law professor, called the obstruction charge "weak," suggesting it was meant to pressure the suspects into providing more information on Tsarnaev.

"If that's the best the feds have now, then they're just squeezing," Dershowitz told CNN. "It doesn't sound like they have very much new here."

Early discussion of avoiding the death penalty

One of the reasons Kadyrbayev drew investigators' attention was because of changes to his Facebook page, a source briefed on the Boston probe said. Kadyrbayev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev changed their profile photos within 15 minutes of each other in the pre-dawn hours of April 19, while the Tsarnaevs were on the run, the source said.

Tsarnaev, who appears to have had access to a wireless device at that time, changed his to a black-and-white photo, while Kadyrbayev changed his photo to one of him wearing an Iron Man mask, the source said.

BIR files tax evasion case vs husband of Donna Cruz

Thursday, May 2, 2013

MANILA -- The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed Thursday a tax evasion case at the Department of Justice against the husband of former singer-actress Donna Cruz.

The tax bureau said Dr. Potenciano Sto. Domingo Larrazabal III failed to supply the BIR with correct and accurate information in his tax returns for 2009 to 2011.

Based on third party information, Larrazabal received a total of P29.14 million in professional fees from 2009 to 2011 from Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) alone but he declared only P4.72 million for the three-year period.

The Cebu-based eye surgeon should have registered as a value added tax payer and filed the required quarterly VAT returns as his earnings was well above the threshold required to register as a VAT taxpayer.

BIR said Larrazabal underdeclared his income, did not pay the correct income tax on it and failed to pay the VAT and file his VAT returns.

The tax bureau computed Larrazabal's deficiency taxes for the three-year period at P21.14 million.

 (Sunnex)

Global labor protests mark May Day

David Agren, Special for USA TODAY
1:56 a.m. EDT May 2, 2013

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico — Protesters armed with pipes, spray paint and slingshots marched through this state capital south of Mexico City, vandalizing public buildings to express opposition to teacher competency exams and the revoking of the right to sell their jobs to the highest bidder.

The Mexico teachers protest was among many demonstrations worldwide for May Day, a day when labor unions traditionally head to the streets to demand more pay and benefits and job protections.
Unions in Greece, where government jobs have been cut because of overspending of taxpayer money, held a strike that brought ferry and train services to a halt.
"We are here to send a message to … those in power in Europe, that we will continue our struggle against unfair, open-ended policies that are destroying millions of jobs," said Kostas Tsikrikas, leader of Greek public sector labor union ADEDY.
More than 100,000 Spaniards angry at budget cuts and higher taxes imposed to solve a nationwide budget deficit took to the streets in 80 cities. Under banners reading "Fight for your rights," union leaders called on the government to reverse its austerity drive.
May Day events in Turkey turned violent when some demonstrators threw stones and gasoline bombs at police. Security forces used water cannon and tear gas to prevent crowds from accessing Taksim Square.
But it was Mexico, the protests were criticized by residents who accuse teachers of focusing more on leftist politics than helping change a school system that fails to educate children adequately.
"There's Marxism in all of the teaching, right from the start," teacher Arturo Castaño says of his alma mater, the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, which takes pride in having produced teachers that have gone on to participate in guerrilla movements.
President Enrique Peña Nieto introduced measures — now enacted — shortly after taking office Dec. 1, to improve teaching in a school system whose students receive some of the lowest scores on standardized exams.
Many residents in Chilpancingo expressed frustration with the teachers, saying they've had to make other arrangements for their children or enroll them in private schools.
"There are some good public school teachers, but a lot of bad ones that don't have the proper training," Esther Cruz, a stationary shop employee and mother of three, says.
Teachers in this state, which spreads south of Mexico City across marginalized mountainous regions, argue that the changes stealthily "privatize" education by imposing fees on poor parents. They insist the exam process is a trick to fire teachers and them hire them back on hourly salaries without full benefits.
"This has nothing to do with education. it's an administrative measure," 30-year veteran teacher Román López, says of the changes. "We have dilapidated school infrastructure (in Guerrero) and the education reform does nothing to fix that."
The former head of the 1.4 million member National Education Workers Union, Elba Esther Gordillo, has been accused of embezzling approximately $200 million in union money spent in part on a luxury home in Coronado, Calif., and shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus.
Teachers in Guerrero have forced the local governor, Ángel Aguierre, to back down and propose a different version of an education reform to be applied locally.
They've kept up the pressure with protests, which included burning the headquarters of four political parties, storming the state congress, surrounding stores such as Wal-Mart and blocking the busy Acapulco-Mexico City highway. Teachers encouraged their students to join in the acts.
Castaño says the leftist curriculum in some regions is a way of addressing the difficulties of rural Mexico, where poverty is pervasive and many work for low wages picking sugar cane and tomatoes in northern states. Students arrive at school hungry and the infrastructure is so lacking that kids bring buckets to school for fetching water from a nearby creek for cleaning and drinking.
Parents pitch in money, Castaño says, to pay the school's monthly electricity bill.
Elsewhere, in Indonesia, tens of thousands of workers rallied for higher pay and other demands. Some carried banners reading: "Sentence corruptors to death and seize their properties" to protest a proposal for the government to slash fuel subsidies that have kept the country's pump prices among the cheapest in the region.
In the Philippines, 8,000 workers marched in Manila to demand more pay and regular jobs instead of contractual work. Some rallied outside the U.S. Embassy, torching a wooden painting stamped with the words "low wages" and "union busting" that depicted Philippine President Benigno Aquino III as a lackey of President Obama.
More than 10,000 Taiwanese protested a government plan to cut pension payouts to solve worsening fiscal problems. In Cambodia, more than 5,000 garment workers marched in Phnom Penh, demanding better working conditions and a salary increase.
In Havana, tens of thousands of Cubans joined the communist nation's traditional May Day march in the Plaza of the Revolution. This year's event was dedicated to Cuba's ally, the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.

Lacson endorses Madrigal

By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Senator Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday endorsed the return of his former colleague in the the Senate, Jamby Madrigal.

Lacson, who will leave the Senate after two consecutive terms that started in 2001, said Madrigal would continue the fight they waged together against graft until the former senator decided to run for President in 2010 instead of running for re-election.

“Jamby and I fought the good fight in the Senate, exposing anomalies without fear or favor. She’s the type who won’t back down from a fight, a type of Senator this country badly needs to continue the war against corruption,” Lacson said in a statement.

Lacson said he and Madrigal fought side by side in exposing the sins of the Arroyo administration, particularly the anomalous national broadband network deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

He said they also filed bills and resolutions to combat poverty, protect the environment and provide jobs and more livelihood opportunities for Filipinos.

Lacson urged his followers to throw their support behind Madrigal, whom he described as his long-time ally in the Senate, saying she will continue the reforms he started.

“Jamby will continue our crusade once I leave the Senate, that’s why I’m only too happy to endorse her candidacy,” Lacson said.

Lacson hails from the vote-rich province of Cavite, where his son and chief of staff Jay is running for vice governor alongside Liberal Party gubernatorial bet Cavite Rep. Irineo Maliksi.

A longtime police officer, Lacson is credited for cleaning up the image of a reputedly corrupt PNP when he became its director-general in 1999.

Madrigal, on the other hand, won her first term as senator in 2004.

She remains as the only candidate chosen by President Aquino outside the winning circle in the latest survey of Pulse Asia.

Former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. and former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, who were similarly situated in the surveys as Madrigal, have made it to the circle of probable winners according to Pulse Asia.

Madrigal, in an earlier interview with reporters, took solace in the fact that her survey numbers were also not quite good when she won a Senate seat nine years ago.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/400617/lacson-endorses-madrigal#ixzz2SC0sJAzZ 

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