Less money or more jobs?

With Aquino III failing to govern, a few of us met on how we could start a campaign even when there was rampant talk of cheating through Smarmatic-PCOS. A campaign would be rendered useless or so we thought.

The more virulent among us said, “we will campaign but if we are cheated” the only recourse would be revolution. Those were brave words. Still there was work to do rather than stand by helplessly and wait for things to happen.

I am not a political expert nor knew much about how to campaign. But one morning, the thought came to me that we start organizing and since most of us were for parliamentary government, the starting point would be to organize a political party. Our mentors were the late senator Ernesto Herrera and former chief justice Reynato Puno. With little understanding and experience in politics, I suggested we work among a number of organized groups. And what could that be but labor groups spread throughout the country?

I knew chief justice Reynato Puno for his advocacy of constitutional change. He was a respected figure and would carry with him the confidence that the general public had for him. He agreed to join our meetings. I remember distinctly what he said that he would include the right to work in the bill on human rights.

As a Supreme Court justice he agreed with the advocates of constitutional change through People’s Initiative. It was lawful even if the articles of the Constitution on it were flawed because of the rush to have the Cory Constitution approved in referendum. Labor cases were not new to him either because he began his judicial career working out labor difficulties.

As a parliamentary system advocate I was looking to the Labor and Conservative parties of the UK as templates. I lived there as a political exile and liked what the Labor Party stood for. It was also our ally during the campaign for the rights of immigrants.

We could start a political party like the UK Labor Party in the Philippines. It was a wild dream but both Puno and Herrera would be men who would rally behind the issues we were fighting for.

Easily said than done but as the late Ernest Herrera said the problem should be tackled the other way around. We must look first for a winnable candidate, otherwise it would be useless to organize for a winner who would be unmoved by our desire for change.

I am writing this article as a way of celebrating Labor Day last May 1st. At that time we did not have candidates we could rely on to carry the task.

Worse I was not aware there was a bitter fight among labor leaders themselves on the issue of contractualization. Workers would be hired only for a period of time and removed at will by employers when the period ended.

But in the midst of organizing, labor leader Senator Ernesto Herrera died. We visited him at Manila Doctors Hospital minutes before he passed away and he said, “continue the work.”

He was a true and tireless worker for labor but at the same time capable of conceding his position when it was needed.

“Senate colleagues paid tribute to the late Ernesto Herrera in necrological services at the chamber in which  they celebrated the life and work of the labor leader and former senator, comparing him to one of the country’s foremost national heroes, Apolinario Mabini.

Herrera’s son, Ernesto II, defended his father’s legacy as a labor leader, and sought to correct a misimpression that he was responsible for the so-called contractualization law. He lamented that a lie, repeated often enough, has taken on the appearance of truth.

Herrera never strayed from his beliefs, his son said. “My dad remained faithful to his advocacies, to represent the workers who trusted and believed in him,” he said.

In a meeting in which the issue was brought up by a member of the committee who was adamantly against contractualization, Herrera replied in a constrained voice that the issue was whether we would fight contractualization or leave the doors open for negotiations in particular cases. Then he said, it would be better if we are able to win more jobs for others while tempering our stand against contractualization.

Here was a man willing to make compromises to win more needed choices. To me he meant that we can argue and negotiate with big business and industrialists but what is the choice until we had more power as a labor sector of Philippine politics. More jobs or less money? It is a case of dividing the pie so work could be divided widely.

You may agree or not agree with the position he took. I also do not know how this was resolved or could ever be resolved. That was my first lesson on how to approach a seemingly intractable problem as we face the problems of labor that will come with the end of COVID 19.