The Nagkaisa Labor Coalition on Tuesday said the country urgently needs laws and measures that will address joblessness, loss of incomes, and economic recession, not death penalty.
The group issued the statement after President Duterte pushed for the revival of death penalty in the country during his State of the Nation Address on Monday.
In a statement, Nagkaisa chairperson Sonny Matula said death penalty is the least that people should hear at the time they are facing real death and hunger in this time of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Filipinos need solutions to health and economic crises, not death by any means," he said.
"The lack of formidable healthcare and a decisive economic recovery plan will surely lead us to death, if not through COVID-19, then by hunger," added Matula.
He said the nation needs more signs of life, not more death on the horizon.
He said the economy also needs a new breath of life from the state itself.
"The Bayanihan 2, with its measly fund of less than P200 billion, is clearly inadequate to weather the worst economic recession that we, and the whole world are facing," said Matula.
"This glaring lack of a bold, yet feasible plan, we are afraid, will surely lead us to more deaths. And that is criminal neglect on the part of the government itself," he added.
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