President ‘Marcos-Biden meeting a boost to economy, workers’ rights’

MANILA, Philippines — The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) hailed the recent meeting between President Marcos and US President Joe Biden, saying it brought a complete package of guarantees to revitalize the Philippine economy and make the country an attractive destination for foreign direct investment.

In a statement released yesterday, Deputy Speaker Raymond Mendoza, who is also TUCP president, said the friendship and alliance strengthened between the Philippines and the US during Marcos’ trip to Washington are sure to bring in key investments and employ 76,000 Filipino seafarers in the next years.

“This is a game-changing and pivotal development – a rocket booster – to revive our economy and situate the Philippines as the new preferred foreign direct investment hub,” said Mendoza.

He mentioned a number of these expected investments to be in renewable energy, mineral resources, solar energy, nuclear power, electric vehicles, green transition, food security and infrastructure.

The TUCP also welcomed the establishment of the United States-Philippine Labor Working Group, which aims to uphold human rights, particularly freedom of association, and other internationally recognized labor rights.

“The TUCP believes that with this US-Philippine Labor Working Group, a dialogue with President Marcos and the Philippine labor movement is ripe to place workers’ rights and welfare front and center of the Marcos administration’s labor and economic policies,” said the lawmaker who represents the TUCP party-list in Congress.“It is of utmost importance that our economic managers and state forces understand that trade unions are there to ensure safe and healthy workplaces, just compensation and benefits and consequently, this will translate to higher productivity, greater competitiveness and enhanced profitability. These are provided by existing laws and constitutionally guaranteed and thus should not result in killings, harassment or imprisonment,” added Mendoza. To this end, the TUCP emphasized that genuine and meaningful workers’ representation is crucial in the US-Philippine Labor Working Group.

“Representatives from the Philippine labor movement should have a seat at the table because they are precisely at the forefront of the longstanding workers’ issues regarding violations of workers’ rights which we need to meaningfully address as soon as possible, consistent with the recommendations of the ILO High-Level Tripartite Mission,” said Luis Corral, TUCP vice president.

The TUCP called on relevant government agencies to fully and faithfully carry out the labor component of the Marcos-Biden agreement.

It expressed high hopes that the establishment of the group will set the stage for better and more decent jobs in the Philippines.