Happy World Fisheries Day from the Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP Party-list)!
The TUCP stands for every fisher’s right to occupational safety, medical care, written work agreements, rest, and social protection. We in TUCP stand proudly with you in calling for the long-overdue ratification of ILO Convention No. 188 known as the Work in Fishing Convention of 2007 for all fishers at home and abroad. House Resolution No. 168 authored by the TUCP Party-list was already adopted by the House of Representatives in the 18th Congress. Now in the 19th Congress under the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez, the TUCP Party-list once again filed House Resolution No. 2059 calling on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. to immediately ratify ILO Convention No. 188 and for the Senate to concur.
The TUCP urges all that we can no longer stand idle while our millions of Filipino workers in the fisheries sector, along with hundreds of thousands of seafarers laboring on foreign fishing vessels, are endlessly exploited. They earn poverty wages and face uncertainty in job security and social protection. Especially during the off-season, they are buried in debt and are forced into precarious informal short-term work as ambulant vendors and tricycle drivers just to put food on the table. Yet, large corporate vessel owners exercise sweeping control over the entire fishing operation—from the catch itself to how it’s weighed and valued—pocketing a lion’s share of the earnings at the expense of the fishers.
This is not only a matter of economics. It is a question of justice as our fisherfolk are deprived of the fruits of their labor in one of the most unsafe, unregulated, and undervalued industries in the world known to mankind—the fishing industry.
Such chronic grave injustice further bolster our resolve as TUCP Party-list to always fight and win for every Filipino worker and their family. Because the struggle of our fishers is our struggle as one working class. This is how important that we let our voices be heard to influence policy. Rest assured that the TUCP Party-list, which led the creation of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) for our modern-day hero overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), will always be the champion of our fisherfolk in Congress.
The struggle to address these modern slavery conditions endured by these essential workers braving high seas to provide for their family and boost our food security and national prosperity is a fight that TUCP vows to win for every Filipino worker and their family. Every day that we fail to ratify ILO Convention No. 188, we abandon them to a fate unworthy of their heroic sacrifice for their family, nation, and the world. Now is the time for action!
The TUCP calls for the immediate ratification of ILO Convention No. 188 as a national imperative and a moral duty to ensure that no more Filipino worker sets sail without the safeguards they demand and deserve. We call on our social partners in Government, especially the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), to prioritize the conduct of the national interest analysis and immediately secure the concurrence of all relevant government agencies that may be charged with the implementation of this Convention.
Ultimately, the ratification of ILO Convention No. 188 sends a strong message to the world that the Philippines under the unifying and modernizing Marcos Administration will stand for nothing less than the safety and dignity of every Filipino worker and their family.
SA INYONG SUPORTA, TULOY ANG LABAN NG TUCP PARTY-LIST!
LAGI NATING IPANALO ANG MANGGAGAWANG PILIPINO!
RATIFY ILO CONVENTION NO. 188 TUNGO SA BAGONG PILIPINAS PARA SA BAWAT MANGINGISDA AT PAMILYANG PILIPINO!
Daghang salamat!
