‘I had to swim to work’: BPO workers join rally vs flood control mess

“NO TO FLOATING STATUS”: Kean Kumalat said his face paint is calling for the end of the industry practice that leaves workers without salary for up to several months. —Photo by John Eric Mendoza

MANILA, Philippines — Some call center agents, whose graveyard shift forces them to adjust their body clock to sleep during the day, chose to forego their daytime slumber and join Monday’s anti-corruption march, which began at Liwasang Bonifacio.

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Kean Kumalat, one of 47 members of the BPO Industry Employees Network Philippines (BIEN) chapter in Cubao, is among several dozens of call center workers who joined thousands of protesters in the freedom park to mark the 54th anniversary of martial law declaration as well as the second iteration of the anti-corruption protests prompted by the multibillion flood control corruption scandal.

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READ: Bayan: Mendiola rally a success despite the ‘overkill,’ ‘fear mongering’

Kumalat said BPO workers like him are directly affected by the ineffective flood control projects, whose funds were potentially lost to corruption.

“To BPO workers who are onsite, even when there’s flooding, even when there’s a typhoon, you still have to report to work. It’s still work as usual inside the company,” he said in Filipino during an interview with Inquirer. “When that’s the system—when it’s work as usual—even when you can barely make it to work, you still have to find a way to get there.”

“You practically have to swim,” he said, noting that some clinics in BPO even prescribe doxycycline, an antibiotic to prevent leptospirosis, which is commonly caught in contaminated floodwaters.

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“I personally had to swim just to get to work,” noting that the floods at his place could reach chest-deep. “It’s not fair, it’s not right.”

Harold Solano, vice president of the 648-member strong BIEN chapter in Bonifacio Global City, said it is important for BPO workers to join this demonstration since they are also directly affected by government inaction.

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“We do not receive any help from the government,” Solano told the Inquirer. “Especially when typhoons and disasters strike, rather than protecting workers like us, they seem to side more with the employers.”

Kumalat and Solano are among the several dozen BIEN members included in thousands of protesters who marched from Liwasang Bonifacio to the vicinity of Mendiola Peace Arch.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said it mobilized around 8,000 people from Liwasang Bonifacio to Mendiola area, but the National Capital Region Police Office only put the crowd estimate at 2,200.

As they trooped to Recto Ave to come close to the Mendiola Peace Arch, the protesters were met with heavily fortified barricades.

Hundreds of police personnel—sandwiched by concertina wire barricades facing protesters and container vans behind them—managed to thwart the protesters.

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“No overkill security measures and spreading of fear can stop the people’s demand for truth and justice,” said Mong Palatino, Bayan secretary-general, in a message to Inquirer. /cb