Social protection, unemployment insurance for Filipinos – ILO, TUCP Partylist

DAVAO City – In a public forum dubbed “Sustainable and Dignified Living for All” organized by the Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP Party List) at ALU Hotel in Davao City today, Mr. Jeff Lawrence Johnson, the country Director for the Philippines of the International Labor Organization (ILO) stressed the importance of having protection of workers against continuing global economic crisis resulting in high global unemployment and increasing threats to lives and livelihoods posed by climate change.

Mr. Johnson said that unemployment is a problem, but the real problem now especially in the Philippines is vulnerable employment.

As of 2013, unemployment rate in the Philippines stood at seven percent (7%) while the gross domestic product (GDP) remained high at around seven percent (7%).

“It is good news that the Philippines still has strong economic growth, but how is this translated to the people. The real challenge for the Philippines is how to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth,” added ILO’s Johnson.

Forty percent (40%) of those with employment are in vulnerable jobs – lowly paid, family workers are unpaid, without security of tenure. ‘The income gap has to be addressed,” remarked Mr. Johnson.

“Social protection such as unemployment insurance will reduce the problems some of the major problems currently faced by the government. If Vietnam can implement unemployment insurance, I see there is no reason the Philippines can’t do it. The challenge for the Congress of the Philippines is how to pass a legislation on unemployment insurance,” said the ILO-Philippines country director.

Responding to Mr. Johnson and speaking before the media and leaders of labor federations in Mindanao, Visayas and Mindanao, TUCP Party –List Raymond Democrito Mendoza committed to file a bill that will mandate guaranteeing unemployment insurance to everyone.

The solon said that the House bill on unemployment insurance that he will file will be in addition to the bill that he co-authors which promotes the welfare of workers in the informal sector – the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy (MCWIE). The The Committee on Labor and Employment of the House of Representatives conducted its first hearing on the bill on January 22.

In the recently concluded General Assembly of TUCP-Partylist in Davao City on February 3, the Party highlighted the problems of poverty, inequality, and the increasing number of those in precarious jobs in the country.

TheTUCP Partylist Agenda in the next two years will be geared towards realization of quality well-being and life of dignity for everyone. This includes advocacies that promote the interest and welfare of workers, consumers, and other basic sectors of the society on urgent issues such as security of tenure and jobs, stopping contractualization of workers, and pushing for living wage. The Party list shall also pursue steps in the next two years towards expansion and institutionalization of social protection programs which include job guarantee, unemployment insurance, and universal access to social services such as healthcare, water, and electricity.

Lawmakers, activists want collusion in power firms investigated by DOJ

Citing possible cartelization or combination by several power firms which led to Meralco’s sharp increase in generation charge this month, a group of lawmakers and social activists filed before the Department of Justice (DoJ) this morning, a petition asking the Office for Competition to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Executive Order No. 45 series of 2011 has designated the Department of Justice as the Competition Authority in the country. Created under this EO was the Office for Competition which can receive any form of complaint as a basis for inquiry or further study on possible violations of laws prohibiting cartelization, monopolies, or combinations in restraint of trade as defined in competition laws.

The petitioners availed of this remedy after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), with neither public hearings nor conduct of probe into allegations of market abuse, approved en toto the amount of P4.15/kWh that Meralco can recover from its purchase of power this month due to the scheduled shutdown of Malampaya natural gas platform.

Signatories to the letter/petition include Akbayan Representatives Walden Bello and Barry Gutierrez, Representative Raymond Mendoza of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, economist Maitet Diokno of the Center for Power Issues and Initiatives, Wilson Fortaleza of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and NAGKAISA, and Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) President Ricardo Reyes.

These groups and individuals were involved in campaigns on the power issue prior to and after the passage of the Electric Power Reform Act or EPIRA. They maintain that the unabated increase in power rates, market concentration and the threat of another power crisis were the results of EPIRA which for the past eleven years produced nothing but escalating rates and diminishing power supply.

In particular, the petitioners pointed to possible collusions by Meralco, First Gas Power Corporation, San Miguel Corporation, Kepco Philippines, Aboitiz Power, Team Energy Corporation, AES Philippines and DMCI Holdings, Incorporated when their plants went into simultaneous and unscheduled shutdown resulting to more load deficits in the Luzon grid and which forced Meralco to buy a more expensive power from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM.

“The expected and scheduled maintenance of Malampaya notwithstanding—an event Meralco was aware of more than six months before its occurrence—and Meralco’s claim that such was not anticipated, and the unscheduled shutdown of several power plants that resulted to Meralco’s recourse to expensive electricity from the WESM, are information that point to a contrived scenario of extreme short-term shortage of electricity for the purpose of raising the price of electricity beyond what it would cost to generate it,” said the petitioners.

The petitioners bewailed that the increase in electricity costs can only add to the economic burden of end-users and consumers who, at a time when the whole nation is reeling from the brunt of Typhoon Yolanda and in anxious anticipation of the holiday season, face increases in prices of basic commodities like liquefied petroleum gas, Metro Rail Transit fares and the like.

The group vowed to escalate their campaign for the overhaul of EPIRA next year.

Broad labor vows to carry on with the fight against poverty, corruption, climate crisis

On 150th Day of Bonifacio:

Marching under the theme "Kalayaan Mula sa Pulitikong Kawatan, Delubyong Kahirapan, Trahedyang mula sa Kalikasan", some 5,000 members of the broad labor coalition NAGKAISA (United) took to the streets today to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the plebeian hero Andres Bonifacio.

The protest, which assembled in the morning at the Mehan Garden for a short program and wreath-laying, marched to Mendiola at noon to call on President Aquino to urgently address corruption, poverty and climate crisis.

The group also demanded that their hero be declared as the first president of the Philippine republic.

Turning in his grave

Josua Mata, NAGKAISA convenor and Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL-SENTRO) Secretary-General, said the miserable state of Filipino workers and the dark clouds of hopelessness hovering above the nation are enough for Bonifacio to be turning in his grave.

“NAGKAISA thus call on the Aquino administration to address the problems of low wages, contractualization, spiraling electricity and water rates, uncontrolled oil prices, forcible demolition of informal settlers and, political patronage and corruption,” said Mata.

He added that the State not only has the duty of providing full protection but also of raising the dignity of labor. “One step to dignify labor’s role in our struggle for independence is to rectify historical errors and proclaim the late Supremo as the first president of the Philippine republic,” he said.

Corruption and elite rule

Among the issues highlighted at the protest was the controversial pork barrel scam. Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) president Leody de Guzman said, “Workers are being made to believe the so-called ‘tuwid na daan’ of the Aquino regime. Yet, despite the all-too familiar critique against the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for breeding political patronage, this seemingly anti-corrupt administration doubled it in 2010”. The Supreme Court declared the PDAF unconstitutional last November 19.

De Guzman added, “We owe this victory against the PDAF to the thousands that participated in the anti-pork barrel protests since the August 26 Million People March in Luneta. Although we welcome the recent decision of the Court, we call on the people to remain vigilant. Traditional and elitist politicians like senate president Drilon and budget secretary Abad are now seeking loopholes to retain the legislative largesse and the entire pork barrel system. Don’t expect political dynasties to go down without a fight”.

Poverty, low wages and contractualization

At the NAGKAISA mass action, speakers tackled gut-issues such as contractualization, starvation, wages and high power rates.

Gerry Rivera, president of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) stated, “PALEA has lifted our picket lines because we have won the battle at PAL through the collective solidarity of NAGKAISA and the entire labor movement. But the fight for regular jobs is not yet over, the scourge of contractualization remains as the number one threat to workers’ rights and welfare”.

Last November 14, PAL management settled with PALEA which members have daringly fought and resisted the company’s outsourcing/contractualization program for 26 months. The settlement wins back the union and its members' status as regular employees.

Renato Magtubo of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), meanwhile, criticized the Aquino administration for preserving starvation wages.

“Wage Order 18 of the NCR wage board is the lowest pay hike for minimum wages in its entire history. Last May 2012, after Labor Day, Noynoy echoed the capitalist blackmail line against wage increases by threatening us with retrenchment and closures. This yellow government maintains wages far below the cost of living in adherence to its tacit policy of cheap labor,” Magtubo avowed.

Alan Tanjusay, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) spokesperson added that the purchasing power of current wages is falling due to spiraling commodity prices and electricity rates. He said, “Electricity rates in the country are among the highest in Asia, causing not only the unabated increase in prices and the decrease in real wages. High power rates are the single most deterrent to investments thereby preventing job creation that is essential to genuine inclusive growth”.

Climate change and man-made calamities

Nagkaisa bewailed that a century and half hence the birth of Gat Andres Bonifacio and the nation is still in shambles. Super typhoons have become the new normal due to climate change and global warming. The recent disasters brought by earthquakes and storms revealed the government’s ineptitude to respond to natural calamities.

“Unless the Aquino administration becomes an active player in the global campaign for climate justice, for lower carbon emissions from advanced countries and for reparations to devastated Third World countries, it will be forever remembered in history as the worst man-made calamity to hit the nation,” Mata concluded.