DU30 SONA: Workers dismayed by “snub” of labor

CEBU, Philippines - The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), yesterday said they were "perplexed, bothered and bewildered" at the “deafening silence” of President Rodrigo Duterte in his State of the Nation Address on how he will address the problem of contractualization and stop “endo” work schemes.

"Filipino workers by the millions elected Rodrigo Duterte president relying on his promise to end epidemic-scale contractualization. This is more than a decades-old problem for millions of poor Filipinos and their families, and yet the president, contrary to his campaign promise, has not even certified legislation to address this. We have honest reasons to fear that it is no longer a top-of-mind concern of the president. Where is it on his list of priorities?" said Alan Tanjusay, ALU-TUCP spokesman.

Tanjusay said that ALU-TUCP, the country's largest labor federation, has been reminding the president that while he asked for time to address the contractual problem, millions have once more been subjected to “endo” and contractualization.

"We urge the president to make clear in no uncertain terms, in plain, categorical language, his placing the contractual problem as among our — and his — top priorities in the national order of battle. All surveys indicate that the top 3 concerns nationally are the spiraling the cost of goods and services, the meager wages and the lack of decent employment. All are directly traceable to the regime of contractualization,” Tanjusay said in a statement.

Tanjusay said workers eagerly listened to Duterte's SONA anticipating that he will finally fulfill his often-repeated promise and announce the abolition of contractualization, but nothing happened.

Tanjusay added that the working people were also dismayed because Duterte did not discuss his plans to address falling wages, rising joblessness, and the increasing prices of basic commodities and services.

Meanwhile, Dennis Derige, the spokesman of Partido Manggagawa-Cebu, said that the SONA was full of sound and fury but signified nothing for the workers.

"Workers got absolutely nothing from the two-hour long SONA speech of President Duterte. The SONA started on the theme of the promise of change. Thus workers waited for Duterte to elaborate on the delivery of the promises. But not a single word on ending endo and not much else too on other social reform issues," Derige said in a statement.

Derige added that the only things certain in Duterte’s SONA are death and taxes.

"People will die. Filipinos will be taxed. Taxes will be used for the war on drugs and martial law instead of for social services," he further said. (FREEMAN)