Librado, NGOs hit TUCP for naming Sasin as nominee

Councilor Angela Librado-Trinidad yesterday criticized the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Party-list for making Anflo Management and Investment Corporation (Anflocor) executive vice president Anthony Sasin its second nominee.

“This announcement of TUCP that it is fielding a non-worker, obviously a non-union member, is the most recent violation of the party-list law,” Librado told the Mirror.

Aside from being Anflocor EVP since 2008, Sasin is director and spokesperson of the Philippine Banana Growers Exporters Association (PBGEA).

According to TUCP Party-list, Sasin is next in line to first nominee Rep. Raymond Mendoza (ALU, Cebu and North Cotabato).

The other nominees are former Executive Secretary Ruben Torres (Zamabales), Roland de la Cruz (Negros), Cecilio Seno Jr,. (Cebu and Ipil), and Milagros Ogalinda.

Librado said the intention behind the party-list system is “to ensure the genuine participation of the marginalized sectors like the workers, peasants, women, youth , etc. because these sectors and their representatives will never have a chance in a costly/money-intensive electoral system.”

“Unfortunately, this party-list law has been bastardized by the entry of the elite and political families. In fact we see a lot of parties being formed for the sole comfort and convenience of the First Family and its lapdogs,” she added.

Librado said Bayan Muna, of which she is a member, “has been steadfast in exposing this evil.”

“This latest announcement seems to confirm of workers that there are several parties which, while claiming to represent them, do not actually carry their voice and represent genuine trade unionism,” she added.

For his part, Tom Villarin, executive director of Siad Initiatives in Mindanao Convergence for Asset Reform and Regional Development said Sasin’s nomination is “an insult to workers and other marginalized sectors who should have representatives in Congress through the party-list system.”

“Sasin is doing a Mikey Arroyo act,” Villarin said, referring to Rep. Mikey Arroyo, the eldest son of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who was nominated by a party-list group of security guards.

Villarin said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should disqualify Sasin upon submission of his credentials as party-list nominee by TUCP.

“Based on Comelec rules, they can disqualify nominees whose credentials are suspect or based on false information. There is incontrovertible proof that Mr. Sasin is an executive of a multi-billion peso banana plantation industry, and has never represented the interest of workers nor will work for them,” Villarin said in a statement.

The same statement quoted Lia Jasmin Esquillo, executive director of the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS), as saying Sasin’s nomination “bastardizes the party-list system that should give voice to the marginalized and voiceless.”

Lawyer Mon Salas of the alternative law group SALIGAN-Mindanao said in nominating Sasin, TUCP “displayed its anti-union and pro-management bias with its choice of a plantation owner as nominee.”

In an earlier statement, Sasin said he is a long-time TUCP member and consultant on labor and Mindanao affairs.

“As a long-time party member and labor consultant of TUCP, I have developed and implemented programs and projects which paved the way for building better labor-management relations particularly in Mindanao,” Sasin said.

For its part, TUCP Party-list, which said it is “the largest workers’ party in the Philippines,” said Sasin’s exposure in the banana industry made him its second nominee for the congressional bid.

TUCP Party-List said it is confident Sasin can represent labor interests in Congress “in a more noble and dynamic manner.”

But the anti-aerial spray groups led by the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (MAAS) also voiced their concern that the only reason Sasin is running for the party-list elections is to block national legislation in Congress that will ban aerial spraying in banana plantations.

“Sasin’s nomination is an insidious ploy of ‘dirty plantations’ to put their spokesperson in Congress,” MAAS president Dagohoy Magaway said in the statement.

The Alliance of Progressive Labor-Davao chapter also condemned TUCP’s move.

“It is a betrayal of the workers’ cause to put a capitalist and plantation executive as representative,” APL Davao chair Jojo Ibanez said in the statement..

Villar said the groups opposing Sasin’s nomination will submit to the Comelec a request to scrutinize the documents submitted by Sasin and TUCP. –JON JOAQUIN, The Mindanao Daily Mirror