Nobody can deny
PERHAPS another barometer how life has become extremely hard under the Duterte regime are the statements coming from the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.
ALU-TUCP is known as the more politically-conservative among our labor centers. And yet under the Duterte regime, it has repeatedly spoken rather vociferously and militantly on the side of its members and all workers. It has also helped initiate a historic labor unity march and rally last May 1, in case you forgot.
The latest bombshell from ALUTUCP is its reaction to new wage increases ordered by the wage boards for Regions 6 and 7 in the Visayas: The paltry pay hikes “do not lift workers out of extreme poverty level.”
ALU-TUCP said the wage board in Region 6 added a grand total of P41.50 to the daily minimum wage for non-agricultural workers, P23.50 for workers in establishments with less than 10 employees, and P13.50 to agricultural workers.
In Region 7, the wage board ordered a wage hike of a whopping P20.00 in Class A cities and towns, and P15.00 for employees working in Class B, C and D.
“The wage boards highly favored the employers sector and committed a mistake and created more problems than solutions for workers, Alan Tanjusay, its normally soft-spoken spokesperson of ALU-TUCP said.
The wage boards had immediately convened on orders of President Duterte as the public denounced rising prices and higher inflation caused by the regime’s new and higher taxes under the Duterte TRAIN Law
ALU-TUCP also has some breaking news to the wage boards: “Prices of commodities and services almost the same between Classes A, B, C and D cities and towns. Workers with the lowest rates will be unable to cope with the rising inflation.”
“It is also bound to create more poverty problems caused by migration of workers and their families with the segmentation of wage rates particularly in the Eastern Visayas,” said Tanjusay.
Carrying on its attack on the regional wage boards, the ALU-TUCP leader said that “the segmentation of wage rates into different classifications, in Region 7 for example, will create bigger problems caused by migration overpopulation of workers and their families in areas where wage rates are highest.”
“This will create bigger problems because cities with highest wage rates will be inundated with population more than its design and capacity,” said Tanjusay.
I’m sure this growing fury could also be heard among family, friends, neighbors, officemates and workmates. It is extremely difficult to be shielded from the devastating effects of the Duterte TRAIN Law, among the many problems under the regime.
Many are graduating from merely arguing about Duterte, towards comparing notes on how life has become a helluva lot worse since 2016.
It doesn’t help anyone, except Duterte’s friends in Big Business, that he has chosen to keep Endo and labor disputes are exploding, like those in the condiments giant NutriAsia and beverage maker Pepsi. In the case of NutriAsia, many were revolted by the most brutal dispersal operations unleashed on June 14 against its striking workers, many of whom remain contractuals after many years of faithfully serving the company. The most malignant oligarchs — the Big Landlords — are having the time of their lives too, compelling farmers to rise up in protest as in Lupang Ramos.
Elsewhere, Duterte has threatened a bloody crackdown against urban poor group Kadamay if its members do not leave the NHA-administered mass housing projects they have occupied. He and his minions see thieves in Kadamay, but is blind on the real problems of homelessness and NHA’s criminal negligence. More than 114,000 public housing units remain empty, unoccupied, rotting, and with many without electricity and water lines. No wonder the intended beneficiaries do not claim them.
It also comes as a total shock that the Duterte regime is obtaining permission from the Chinese government so that our fishermen could fish in our own waters recognized by international law as part of our Exclusive Economic Zone. It is a scandal that Malacanang defended the Chinese Coast Guard for grabbing our hardworking fishermen’s catch. “Pinalitan naman ng noodles”, said the president’s spokesman. Later, the foreign affairs secretary claimed barter trade is now happening between our fishermen and the Chinese in the West Philippine Sea.
The arguments about the poor needing only to be more hardworking fall flat, and could easily be debunked by any ordinary person who is surely already working his or her darn best to survive under the current situation. Accusing the poor for alleged “katamaran” does not delete the big structural and institutional problems caused or made lots worse by the Duterte regime.
Whether one is an activist, liberal or conservative does not matter at the check out counters in supermarkets, or in the neighborhood palengke. Being a rabid DDS does entitle one to any discount — except for the DDS oligarchs, the Chinese and other foreign interests, and Duterte’s government appointees.
Everyone’s in the same boat, and so more and more people are finding common cause to raise a howl about life under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Because no matter what the trolls and his spin masters tell us, it cannot possibly be called a good or better life.