I am re-posting some excerpts from KMU website (I don’t want to post their URL here — I don’t want to contribute to an increase in their page rank. Hehehe.) where they are accusing the government of so many things based on (in my opinion) a copyediting error. You guys read the statement from KMU first, then, at the bottom, you’ll see what their basis was.
“This is clearly a malicious and dangerous propaganda campaign against our organization, and all that the Arroyo government wants to get rid of,” said Elmer Labog, KMU Chairperson.
“The black propaganda against KMU will only reaffirm the government’s repressive attacks on unions and workers.”
Since Arroyo’s term in 2001, 87 workers have been victims of extra-judicial killings, and 16,400 were subjected to many forms of labor rights violations, according to documented cases alone.
In effect, the regime is preaching that to form unions, to fights for just wages, to collectively assert for your rights in the workplace, and all that KMU has been asserting for all these years, are rebellious acts,” Labog commented.
He added that “It also wrecks further the image of our Bangsamoro people, who have been maligned in the national media especially recently that Arroyo and the US are bent to pursue their vested interests in Minadanao.
The statements above were based on an activity in a 1st year textbook from a local publisher (Diwa):
Mga gawain: magsaliksik hinggil sa mga rebeldeng grupo sa bansa: NPA, NDF, MILF, MNLF, KMU.
I don’t personally know the editor of this textbook. And I cannot attest that his or her company is not part of the government’s machinery. But I know that KMU did not even communicate with them before making that fuss over the label, so to speak, given to them. I know that the term rebel has a significant implication but clearly, it is actually KMU who has malicious and dangerous propaganda! Mistakes happen. Some errors sometimes go unnoticed. The best course of action is to talk to the publisher and ask them to explain. Hay naku… talk about malicious and dangerous propaganda.
As far as I am concerned, this is [simply] a case of CE error (N, S, I, whatever).
CE-Friends out there, always be very careful. Imagine this CE error resulting to combination of ideas like malicious and dangerous propaganda campaign, government’s repressive attacks on unions and workers, and Bangsamoro.
Good times.
Edit:
On second thought, this is how the game is played in politics. It’s dirty, but it’s how it is played. Had KMU approached the publisher, Diwa, first, the issue would have died down easily. But of course, KMU wouldn’t want that. If they have to include the bangsamoro plight here, they will. Hayy.. Politics at its best. Ha!