Independence without workers' freedom

What is the meaning of Independence Day to the poor and marginalized working class? What is the use of political independence without economic freedom? What profits are we claiming when one in seven of its 100 million population is starving? What use is all this much ado about a stable economy, and strong financial performance, when millions are unemployed and even more are underemployed, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos do not eat decent and clean meals three times a day, millions are living in inhuman and sub-human squatter areas, thousands of half-naked children are begging in the streets, hundreds of thousands can not afford basic medicines and millions have to go abroad just to earn a living and support their families.

The economic boom only yields tremendous profits for mall owners, bankers, opportunistic investors, and scam perpetrators, who remain at large, after running away with the billions coming from the middle class. Billions poured in by 12 million OFWs from more than 200 countries all over the world end up being spent lavishly in mindless splurges and reckless consumer spending. There is no discernible OFW money being saved or invested. Thus, only businessmen make a lot of money out of labor migration. A fraction is spent in getting college education for kids who will graduate and also become OFWs. Each day about five thousand Filipinos leave for   other countries to make them stronger, while our nation continues to delude itself of a sham prosperity while government is still being ruled by political dynasties, financial oligarchs and plain opportunists. Education and medical care, including medicines and hospitalization costs are beyond the reach of the masses.

There is no genuine independence when most of the working class are “isang kahig, isang tuka”'. The minimum wage earners, who man the factories' production lines can hardly support their families' needs for clean food and water, house rental, transport cost, and the basic education of their children. Crimes are on the rise, the drug menace is worsening. People are hungry, angry and afraid. Gambling in luxurious casinos are being promoted, illegal numbers' games are being tolerated, by the simple inaction and lucrative neglect by the police authorities. Many sick poor people do not have access to affordable medicines. The number of out-of-school youth is on the rise. College graduates cannot find jobs. The job mismatch has been here since the beginning and yet, the government is unable to solve it, beyond rhetoric and propaganda.

The political powers are monopolized by powerful family dynasties. Political positions are either “inherited” or bequeathed by parents, spouses or siblings. There is no definite enabling law to implement the constitutional abhorrence against all forms of political elitism and monopolies. Eighty-five percent of the nation's financial wealth are in the hands of less than fifteen percent of the populace. Beyond promises, many landed estates have not been distributed to the tenants. Fishermen are being driven away from fishing grounds by fully armed fishers from neighboring countries. The government cannot even fully defend our national territory. China is bullying us and our relevant officials could only watch in utter lack of the wherewithals to secure our islands from poaching and virtual invasions. We keep on dreaming that the US will protect us. They have more important and more urgent things to attend to. Above anything else, they have their own problems and thus are bound to promote their own interests.

The worse part of this sad predicament is in the labor front. Hundred of thousands of our workers are subjected to perpetual contractualization, and the DOLE cannot do anything really useful and true. DOLE officials hobnob with mall owners whose workers, sales girls, promodizers and merchandizers are casuals and contractuals for ten to twenty years. Wages are low and even SSS memberships and Philhealth and PAG-IBIG memberships are being ignored, delayed or altogether denied.Illegal dismissal cases are allowed to stay in the arbitration and appellate dockets, without being resolved with a sense of urgency. Victims of unjust terminations are waiting while decision makers take their sweet time, unmindful of the pains and sufferings of poor and suspecting litigants.Justice delayed is not only denied. Many times, it is twisted and sabotaged.

And so, what does Independence Day mean to the working class? It is a mockery of the lack of economic freedom of the poor workers. Foreigners are gambling millions each day in the casinos, in the name of more fun in the Philippines. But thousands of families have nothing to eat. Expats are being housed in plush enclaves of the rich and the famous, while millions of our own people are living under bridges and in sidewalks and esteros with makeshifts shacks and “barong barongs”. Foreign executives are living in luxury and abundance, while their own lowly rank-and-file workers are buried in debts and hopelessness. It is the same oppression and exploitation that Jose Rizal wrote about and Andres Bonifacio fought against. There is no true independence when the people are starving, jobless, homeless and hopeless. Ang daang matuwid ay tila patutungo sa kasadlakan.