AS THE country commemorates National Heroes’ Day on Monday, several youth groups honored health workers and other essential frontliners.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines said that the everyday efforts of frontline workers “are the true savior of the country.”

“As we celebrate National Heroes Day, CEGP gives its highest salutation to the Filipino peasantry, laborers, indigenous people, women, medical workers, and journalists who remained persistent in the struggle for genuine democracy,” it said in a statement.

“It is in the experiences of the oppressed and those who lay within the fringes of society that history is continually shaped,” it added.

The group also expressed solidarity with the protest actions conducted by several medical workers and also condemned the failed pandemic response of the government.

“CEGP recognizes that the protest action is not just to honor our new modern and national heroes, but this is also a declaration of the continuous fight against injustices and tyranny of Duterte,” CEGP said.

“The CEGP condemns the incompetence of Duterte and Duque over their criminal negligence. We continue to demand scientific solutions, just treatment for our health workers, and accountability over the misspent funds of the Department of Health,” it added.

Meanwhile, Kilos Ko Youth said that celebrating the “modern heroes is not enough” as it urged government to provide necessary support and just compensation to health workers.

“We recognize the heroic and invaluable contributions of the health workers and call for our government to mitigate their physical discomfort, distress as well as perils associated with performance of their tasks,” the group said.

“We call for the implementation of the long-overdue Covid19 benefits to health workers,” it added.