What labor didn't hear from the SONA

 What a pity. The President has missed connecting with his biggest constituency. His speech writers must have overlooked the largest, most important, the most hardworking, the most productive, and perhaps, the most cooperative: the labor front.

Labor represents no less than 50 million Filipinos, 12 million of whom are Filipino migrant workers working in 200 countries all over the world. This is the sector that generates the country’s gross national product in billions of pesos every year, the one that produces the country’s foods, move people around the country in land, sea, or air transport, people who provide services that keep corporate firms viable, and the government bureaucracy working.

In other words, the President missed communicating with the most important of his bosses: the working class. The few words about workers were too token and the statistics were grossly bloated.

A large chunk of the labor sector are the OFWs, the ones who keep the Philippine economy afloat in the midst of the Asian crisis, and even notwithstanding the economic woes currently ailing Europe.

The President failed to present a master plan on labor migration. He has failed to show a permanent and continuing protection program for our migrant workers, given the political turbulence and military uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The on-going initiatives are all ad hoc and both the manpower and the resources are hardly sufficient, vis-a-vis the number of Filipinos there, both documented and undocumented.

Our men and women on the ground, who are on mission for rescue and repatriation, are overworked and unprotected from the hazards of wars and diseases. The Syria problem is a tip of a huge iceberg. The SONA failed to reassure the nation that the government is prepared for all eventuality.

The most pressing problem in the domestic front are the worsening unemployment and underemployment. While some DOLE bureaucrats would humor the nation with bloated statistics, the people won’t buy that spin in public relations.

 The people were not born yesterday. They know the real score. Every year, hundreds of thousands new graduates cannot be absorbed into the domestic labor market. They become educated unemployables because their diplomas are of professions and degrees that are not needed by our industries.

Thus, nurses are compelled to become call center agents because the BPOs are the only employers who keep the job fairs relevant. All the rest are compelled to go abroad. They have to sell properties, mortgage their houses and lots to pay some greedy recruiters. Many of them end up being exploited and exposed to some dirty, difficult, dangerous, degrading and deceptive jobs. What is the President’s plan to alleviate their conditions?

Out there in the Middle East and elsewhere, there are thousands languishing in jails for either violations of immigration laws or for drug cases, murders and other crimes.

The government has no budget enough to hire good lawyers to defend the rights of the accused. I have seen them in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalo, and in Kuwait an a few in Taiwan.

They have no means to have equal justice before foreign courts, that speak the languages of their accusers and persecutors. They don’t understand the culture and laws of their host government. Their pre-departure seminars were halfhearted and not destination-specific. They focus more on money remittances than workers’ protection.

The government lacks sincerity and seriousness in preparing outgoing OFWS.  What is the President’s plan for them? Is he going to leave even the master plan to his subalterns and underlings?

Back here in our country, one big problem that has remained unreported honestly to the President is the outrageous delay in the resolution of labor disputes. Why does it take 20 or more years for a poor victim of illegal dismissal to be resolved by our quasi-judicial system? Why are big law firms unduly influencing the decisions in labor cases?  Why is labor litigation becoming very expensive and inexpeditious? Are we going back to the CIR days when workers were compelled to strike just to earn some measure of respect for their basic rights? And why are big federations controlled by one or two families? Is there political dynasty too in trade unionism? How do federations control important appointments in labor tribunals and even in the SSS, Land Bank and PEZA? Is it the right time to review the laws and policies governing these? The point is: Why has the President failed to address the jugular issues that affect the largest number of his constituencies?

Every year, when the President would be about to address the nation, the labor front would look forward to some concrete plans for them, some things to give them hopes, to keep them going, the hard and narrow path of life. For three times now, the President has failed the working class. There is thus  much reason to conclude that the labor sector is not that important to the President. 50 million workers do not count much. What a pity.