SONA-WORKERS | Labor groups decry Marcos’ lack of plans for workers at his SONA

July 26, 2022 , 06:39 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(July 26, 2022) – A coalition of labor groups on Tuesday decried President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s lack of plans in improving the conditions of workers in the country in the face of rising unemployment and soaring prices when he delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Nagkaisa Labor Coalition spokesman Rene Magtubo said the president’s national address before a joint session of Congress was quiet on whether he would push for higher wages, ending labor contractualization, and solve the high unemployment and underemployment.

“The State of the Nation, Marcos declared, is sound. But it was deafeningly quiet on wages, endo, and full employment,” Magtubo, who is also the chairman of Partido Manggagawa (PM), said in a statement.

Marcos’ inaugural SONA presented plans on continuing land reform, assisting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and increasing employment through infrastructure development and support for small businesses and the agriculture and tourism sectors

However, the leader presented scant details in his speech on how to improve the welfare and working conditions of ordinary workers in the country.

Magtubo also called out Marcos Jr. for being mum on his plans on addressing human rights violations, which has affected trade unions as labor leaders and organizers are made targets of “red-tagging” or sweeping accusations of participation in Communist rebellion.

The International Trade Union Confederation has ranked the Philippines as among the top 10 countries with the worst violations of workers’ rights in the world.

“In the speech were lists of promises that he should have discussed during his (presidential election) campaign but he never did. There is nothing in the speech that portrays the real state of the nation,” Magtubo said.

Labor groups have been seeking higher minimum wages – which currently ranges from as low as P306 daily in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to P570.00 in the national capital region – amid soaring prices of fuel and basic necessities.

Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the rate of inflection of consumer prices rose to 6.1% in June, the highest in more than three years. This came along with the ballooning of global fuel prices driven by the Russia-Ukraine conflict this year.

The country’s unemployment rate rose to a three-month high last May to 6%. Although it is lower than the figures from the same month last year at 7.7%, it remained elevated compared to 5.1% recorded in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Underemployment, or the share of workers who are already employed but are still looking for more work, also rose to its highest in two months to 14.5%.

Over 9 million workers in the private sector and the government do not also have security of tenure due to the practice of contractualization, which started under the labor policy of Marcos Jr.’s late father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

A measure seeking to ban the practice of contractualization has been filed in the lower house of Congress, after Marcos Jr.’s predecessor Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the bill.

(MM)

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