In time for the mid-year break, militant student group SANLAKAS Youth today issued a call to boycott PAL as a sign of support to the struggle of PAL employees against contractualization.

Carl Reyes, the group’s spokesperson, said, “We expect that a lot of students will go home to their respective provinces and we are grabbing this opportunity to educate them on the plight of PAL employees and their fight for job security. This is very relevant to us since young students are considered the reserved forces of labor and we are the future workers of this country. ”

He furthered that most students are studying to pursue employment after graduation and “for sure, no one would like to land in contractual jobs after 4 to 5 years of burning eyebrows.”

Reyes added they are doing a lot of campaign tactics to popularize their call. Among them is the setting-up of a Facebook support page and the usual groundwork wherein they talk to student groups in different campuses.

“It is very important,” Reyes explained, “for students to understand how this so-called contractualization will affect them. Sooner or later, they will be contractual workers too because the PAL case is a strong precedent on labor jurisprudence.”

He also shared the fact that he could easily relate to PAL employees because he is a Tourism Management major in UP Diliman and will probably pursue a career in the travel industry after graduation.

“Kung sa ngayon ay nahahabaan ang isang karaniwang estudyante sa isang semester, sigurado kaming sa panahong kami’y nagtatrabaho na; maiiklian kami sa isang trabahong katumbas lamang ng haba ng isang semestre,” Reyes concluded. ###

Victor “Primo” Morillo
Executive Assistant/ Youth Coordinator
Office of the President
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
Business Email: primofdc@yahoo.com
Mobile: 09167706376