MANILA, Philippines — Tens of thousands of Filipinos demonstrated here and in other cities across the archipelago Sept. 21 over the embezzlement of billions of pesos allocated for desperately needed flood control projects. Protests had been building for weeks over revelations Filipino capitalists and politicians pocketed a large share of government funding meant to reduce the impact of flooding in working-class areas.
During the Manila International Book Fair Sept. 10-14, the daily press carried headlines about parliamentary inquiries and removal of officials as the government tried to stem mass anger.
“The Filipino people are struggling to keep up with prices, wages are so low,” Rain Centeno, a political science student at Polytechnic University of the Philippines, told a volunteer at the Pathfinder booth. Many workers try to get by on a “bare minimum of 600 pesos [$10.30] per day while the ruling families are flaunting their wealth.”
Two groups of “jeepney” drivers and owner-operators, Piston and Manibela, called strikes in Manila in the lead-up to the national demonstrations. Tens of thousands of operators and drivers of the Jeep minibuses provide the main public transport in this city of over 15 million.
They are fighting against a government program that places the cost of buying expensive electric jeepneys to replace thousands of diesel-powered vehicles on their backs. The drivers make between 400 and 1,300 pesos a day. With a slow uptake of the program, already one-third of loans that operators’ cooperatives took out are in default. Some 10,000 diesel jeepneys were declared “unauthorized” in June 2024.
“You’re already drowning in debt because of modernization, and your taxes are also being stolen,” Piston said in a statement Sept. 15.
At the same time, workers across the country are fighting for raises. Some 200 unionists at the Kawasaki factory in Muntinlupa City in Metro Manila downed tools in May demanding more pay and improved benefits. It is the first strike in the 57-year history of the union at the plant, which produces 18,000 motorcycles a month. “We’ve held a peaceful picket line every day through rain, heat and even earthquakes,” Richard Balberan, president of the Kawasaki United Labor Union, said Sept. 4.
Bus drivers at FOC Transport Corporation in Quezon province have been on strike since April to win more severance pay. Like the Kawasaki workers, they face a court case filed by the bosses against their “illegal” strike action.
Workers at the Nexperia semiconductor factory in Cabuyao City, near Manila, sat in at the plant for three days in March. They won a wage increase and the reinstatement of two union officers.