Spare our jobs!
Thus cried by a militant organization of workers, peasants and urban poor as they called on the Senate to wake up and stop the passage of the proposed sin tax bill.
In a rally  participated by 5,000 members of the Buklurang Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) yesterday at the Senate grounds, the group lamented that lawmaking body  Senate is already dead as it has stopped from performing its mandate to uphold the interest of the poor Filipino people.
They said the members of the Senate ignored their call to scrap the controversial bill.
The bill aims to impose higher taxes on locally manufactured cigarettes and liquors.
Carrying coffins  to symbolize their disgust over the Senators, the BMP urged the Senators save the underprivileged from the ill-effects of the proposed measure.
“ The Senate has become blind and deaf to our plight and pleadings. Not a single senator has the courage to talk to us,” said Anthony Barnedo, secretary general of the  Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod (KPML-NCRR) which is a member of BMP.
The BMP, one of the convenor of the Peoples Coalition Against Regressive Taxation (PCART), began their anti-sin tax bill campaign at the Senate when deliberations for the proposed measure started.
“It is now clear for us how numb the Senators are at the workers’ grievances. It is now clear for us that no Senator will stand for the interest of the people for their livelihood and rights. It is now clear for us that this August hall of Congress is a graveyard and mausoleum of the aspiration and hope of the poor,”Gie Relova, secretary general of BMP said.