CLARK FREEPORT -- The Anakpawis Partylist criticized Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for favoring the setting up of economic zones like Clark.
The group instead asked the presidential candidate to work for the establishment of national industries to generate jobs.
The partylist issued the statement after Duterte threatened to kill workers under the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) during his proclamation rally in Tondo, Manila.
"Though we respect Duterte as he is supportive of the farmers and workers in Mindanao, we are compelled to criticize him for siding with foreign businesses in eco-zones, than promote respect of Filipino labor rights such as wage hikes, form unions and strikes," Anakpawis Representative Fernando Hicap said in a statement.
Hicap said that foreign capitalists take advantage of low wages and repression of workers' rights as eco-zones implement "no union, no strike" policy.
In Central Luzon, workers earn as low as P350 daily, while their produced foreign branded bags were priced from P12,000 to as high as P80,000 per piece.
Many of the workers want to demand wage increases and form unions but are hesitant as the industrial estate where they are located is on guard against labor demands.
In Clark special economic zone, workers who attempt to form unions are immediately retrenched, according to Hicap.
He added that in Subic, many workers have died and suffer the worst conditions inside Hanjin shipbuilding plant, but the government is exempting the Korean firm from accountability.
In Calabarzon, workers are usually retrenched and demoted to contractual as what happened in Tanduay plant, Hicap said.
In another foreign company, the Office of Presidential Legal Counsel even got involved in repressing the workers to form a union, at their certification election.
"Eco-zones that claim 'industrial peace' are actually zones of plunder of surplus value of Filipino labor, we actually demand the dismantling of these establishments as they enjoy tax holidays, labor repression, even sovereign guarantees," Hicap said.
The partylist asserted that eco-zones is part of the third of triad plunder of the national economy, plunder of surplus value of labor, accompanied by plunder of natural resources and surplus product of agriculture.
"Duterte's declaration of his bias to foreign businesses is detrimental to his candidacy, it exposes that he has no concrete plans for genuine national development, but replicating 'Daang Matuwid's puppetry to foreign monopoly," Hicap said.
The Anakpawis is also frustrated of Duterte's announcement of allowing majority ownership of businesses to 70 percent by foreign investors.
The group said that it would affect the vast population of farmers, as it would lead to foreign ownership of land.
"It is puzzling to see Duterte to rely on foreign investors for capital when they are actually here to profit, we urge him to promote the perfect combination of nationalist industrialization and genuine land reform as key to development," Hicap said.
The group affirmed that nationalist industrialization would lead to generation of jobs for Filipinos, curbing mass unemployment, while genuine land reform is causal to food sufficiency and supply to the requirements of the domestic industry.
Aside from this, it would lessen if not wipe out the country's dependence to foreign imports and even produce the much needed machineries and technological advances, Hicap said.
"We have the natural resources, the skilled labor, the talented intelligentsia, the food supply, we have what we majorly need, the foreign monopoly is actually stealing our social product we need for development, there is no condition to allow them to dictate the country's future," he added.