Labor pains under Duterte
PRESIDENT Duterte has arguably done what no post-EDSA president has ever done – get the fragmented labor movement to unite against his administration.
In a development that’s underreported in the media, the Nagkaisa labor coalition led by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, and the militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno, have forged an alliance to confront Duterte on his refusal to end the policy of “Endo” or contractualization.
Philippine labor groups are not just disappointed. They’re fuming mad over Duterte’s breaking of his promise last Labor Day 2017 that he would sign an executive order to end “Endo” and the President’s recent statements that he won’t be able to deliver on his campaign promise after all.
In the past few weeks, both Nagkaisa-TUCP and the KMU have launched parallel and joint protest actions at the Department of Labor and Employment and at Mendiola. We’ve never seen anything like that before.
The lack of job security under contractualization prevents upward social mobility among many workers. It is a policy that keeps them poor and without a chance for longterm success.
Duterte’s refusal to end “Endo” as he promised in his presidential campaign is emblematic of the brand of economic policy he has adopted since he took office as president. It is not new, and as stridently pro-Big Business and pro-oligarchy as economic policies of all previous presidents of the Philippines. No change there.
Duterte meanwhile has been quick, creative, and committed in giving Big Business, oligarchs and foreign multinational companies all the possible perks and advantages. For instance, he has prioritized the entry of Big Business into rebuilding and rehabilitation efforts in war-torn Marawi, without regard to the local entrepreneurial classes of the Bangsamoro. He has not shied away from his role as salesman for Big Transport and Big Banks in the jeepney phaseout scheme, and as real estate agent on behalf of foreign mining companies lusting over the ancestral domain of national minorities, such as the Lumad of Mindanao.
In TRAIN 1, Duterte and his economic team gave generous tax cuts to the highest-earning billionaires and multimillionaires, and which meant new taxes and tax increases for the rest of the population. The income tax exemption for minimum wage earners and OFWs is rendered meaningless by price hikes caused by new and higher consumption taxes.
In TRAIN 2, Duterte and his economic team are set to give corporations even more tax perks. Guess who will shoulder the cost of those gifts to the oligarchs.
Our OFWs know they cannot go back home because the fundamentals remain restrictive and unfair, to say the least. There remains a shortage of jobs, “Endo” remains, and the wage levels still as puny as ever. They also know that prices of basic goods and consumption taxes have gone up.
Duterte may have coopted some OFW leaders, but their participation in misinformation and disinformation has limits. OFWs in their millions have an eye on what’s actually happening and they see Duterte’s failure to prioritize workers and other marginalized sectors.
Just like his predecessors and mainly because he continues his predecessors’ economic policies, Duterte and his administration proudly parade economic statistics to make workers and the public salute him. “Fastest growing economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),” according to the World Bank. Fitch meanwhile has upgraded the Philippines’ credit rating from “BBB-“to “BBB.”
Have the much-vaunted “recovery” and “growth” resulted in more jobs?
Not really. As Ibon Foundation’s economists reported in January, 2018, “going on its second year, the Duterte administration saw the largest contraction in employment in 20 years.”
Citing Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) figures, Ibon pointed out that “the number of employed Filipinos fell by 663,000 to 40.3 million in 2017 from the year before.”
“This is the largest contraction in employment in 20 years or since the 821,000 job losses in 1997,” said Ibon.
According to Ibon’s own estimates based on government data, the number of unemployed rose by 66,000 to 4.1 million, adding that “the unemployment rate has also risen to some 9.2% and remains by far the highest in ASEAN.”
Ibon further noted that labor force participation rate (LFPR) dropped to 63.7%, the lowest in over three decades since the 63.1% rate during the severe economic crisis in 1985.
The lack of job opportunities continues to drive millions of Filipinos abroad for work, said Ibon.
“Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reports 1,281,506 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed from January to September 2017, or equivalent to an average of 4,694 per day in the first three quarters of 2017. Millions of Filipinos also continue to be driven into informal, low-paying and insecure work,” Ibon added.
The grand alliance of NagkaisaTUCP and KMU is a preview of big, furious and indignant protests on Labor Day against a president who has been “weighed but found wanting.”