Address
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
During the Celebration of Labor Day
[Delivered in Malacañang, Manila, May 1, 1995]
A better day
for all workers
THIS IS THE THIRD Labor Day I am celebrating with you.
When I took office on June 30, 1992, GNP growth stood at .48 percent, unemployment was at 10.7 percent and underemployment at 22.1 percent. The crippling power crisis had arrested industrial growth and caused layoffs. Incomes were at a low, and the inflation rate of 18.66 percent had hit hard at the purchasing power of workers.
Are we on track?
When we marked our first Labor Day together at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium on May 1, 1993, I told you then my goals in labor and employment:
Mga kapatid, sa dulo ng aking tenure of office sa 1998, ang aking hinahangad ay magkaroon ng per capita income of at least $1,000. The incidence of poverty by that time should have gone down from more than 50 percent to 30 percent. The economy should have grown by an average of 7.6 percent. Investments should have risen from 22 percent of gross national product to 30 percent. Unemployment should have gone down from 10.3 percent to 6.6 percent.
By June 30 this year, we will stand exactly halfway through my term. So it is fair to ask ourselves today whether we are on track in meeting our goals—or should we be preparing excuses for failure to meet our targets?
Today, I believe we can say—to each other and to the world—we are on track and we are on schedule.
Indeed, there are some foreign analysts—for instance, Credit Lyonnais—who believe we have already surpassed our per capita income target of $1,000.
As for the other targets, the unemployment rate is down to 8.8 percent this year. And we have had two strong years of accelerating growth.
To be sure, we have not yet found a lasting answer to mass poverty. And we have a long way to go to achieve full modernization.
But after nearly three years of reform and rebuilding, we can already glimpse the future on the horizon. By the time we mark the first centennial of our republic in 1998,I say to you the Philippines will be one of the most dynamic economies in Asia—and anyone who wants to work—in this country, not abroad—will have a job and be paid a living wage.
This is not just rhetoric to decorate this celebration of Labor Day. This is what our efforts these past few years are inexorably leading to.
Reviewing the record
There is no need to recite here the familiar statistics underpinning our economic turnaround. What matters is what this turnaround has meant for our working people, for our unions and for those who enter the labor force every year.
It can be stated simply: More of our people are working today than at any time in our history. And they are employed more and more in quality jobs.
As of January 1995, our labor force stood at 27.5 million—up by 1.9 percent from a year ago. Of this, 25.1 million were employed.
There were 521,000 new entrants in the workforce. Job generation produced 427,000 new jobs.
One reason for the rise in unemployment was a drop in agricultural employment as a result of a change in the weather pattern. Less labor was required during late 1994 and early 1995 because the second harvest was advanced due to the early rains.
Most significant about the new labor and employment figures is the way the economy is changing. Since January last year, 1.2 million wage and salary positions were filled in place of self-employed and unpaid family work. The labor market share of these protected workers increased by 3.9 percent.
Similarly, the underemployment rate plunged from 23 percent a year ago to 18.6 percent this year—the lowest since 1987.
Progress through democracy
The biggest gainer among the sectors has been manufacturing, which grew by 24.2 percent. New jobs in manufacturing rose to 165,000 in January 1995, compared to 25,000 a year earlier, or a rise of 560 percent.
Among the top 400 manufacturing firms, average worker compensation grew by 14.3 percent.
We have not won these gains through sheer good luck. As working men like to say, the fight for jobs and growth is won only by good old-fashioned hard work.
We have introduced major structural reforms—bringing down monopolists and cartelists in the process. We have gotten all the sectors to support a common economic policy. And we have finally experienced what it is like to do business on a level playing field.
Today, our prospects are better because we have shown our political will for change and reform. We know now we can sustain growth, create new jobs for our unemployed and new labor entrants, and attract foreign investments and trade.
This is not just our verdict, this is also the way foreign observers see our country today. And they include the biggest investment bankers like Salomon Brothers and Merrill Lynch.
Forbes Magazine went even further. It declared: “The economic reforms brought to much of Southeast Asia by authoritarian regimes have come to the Philippines via democracy.”
The praise is well deserved, because we have sacrificed much to regain and keep our democracy. But our work has only begun. There are still millions without work or not enough work in our country.
We do not forget that more than four million of our countrymen are working abroad today—some in conditions of virtual servitude.
The names of Flor Contemplacion and Delia Maga reverberate in our minds because they symbolize our people’s ardent desire to work, and society’s failure to fill that need.
Now more than ever, the plight of our overseas workers—documented and undocumented—must be Government’s abiding concern.
Sustaining gains, moving onward
Neither do we forget that many of our workers belong to the informal sectors. They include food vendors, homeworkers, domestic help, street hawkers and tricycle drivers, who work with hardly any support or social protection.
Today, I pledge to you that my Administration—over the remainder of its term—will strive to bring every Filipino worker within the ambit of our labor laws, our support system and our development program.
Whenever I look at the global economy, I ask myself: In what area can we be immediately competitive with other countries?
Clearly it is not resources. Nor is it technology or capital.
People alone constitute our competitive edge in the world today. Thus, without forgetting the other vital factors in economic development, we must focus attention on a building a world-class workforce.
A world-class workforce
Under our Medium-term Development Plan for 1993-98, the economy is undergoing a structural transformation from an agri-based and service-oriented economy to an industrial one. Consequently, there will be a greater demand for skilled workers, technicians, and science and engineering graduates.
We must therefore move to train this early, to include our unskilled overseas workers and informal workers.
Through our manpower development program, we are putting in place a solid social infrastructure for education and training to support our development goals.
Today, the Philippine educational system consists of a three-layered structure designed to develop our human resources most effectively.
At the apex of this structure is the Commission on Higher Education, which oversees tertiary education. At its base is the Department of Basic Education, which oversees primary and secondary education.
Skills upgrading is a sound investment
The middle layer of this structure is the most relevant to our global needs. It is the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), created through Republic Act 7796. A multisectoral and tripartite body, TESDA has the responsibility of planning, setting standards and allocating resources for technical, vocational and skills development.
If workers are to achieve a sense of security in times of change, they must be given the opportunity to renew or upgrade their skills. Skills acquisition and upgrading is not only a sound investment. It is a form of empowerment.
I got an idea of what kind of empowerment meant when I attended the recent National Skills Olympics in Cebu recently. One of the winners surprised us all. I understand she is here today.
Her name is Nenia Escueta—and she won in the welding competition.
The legislature is one key actor in creating the conditions for a globally competitive workforce. Already, the stress on human resource development and protection has produced laws covering all subsectors of the workforce, including would-be workers.
Recent labor laws include:
- Increasing the minimum wage for household help;
- Giving representation to women in the Social Security System. This is affirmative action for gender equality;
- Setting in place a comprehensive and integrated shelter and urban development program; and
- Declaring sexual harassment unlawful in the employment, education or training environment.
I know that organized labor tends to look at these measures in monetary or wage terms. Yet better working standards should be measured not only in increased wages but also in terms of access to other social goods and benefits.
We are now reviewing the Labor Code. As a complement to our manpower development strategy, we must evolve new models to govern employee-employer relations and balance social protection, employment generation, collective rights and the imperative of sustained development.
Overseas employment
Among others, we seek 1) the passage of a law on workers’ welfare and protection, particularly the regulation of subcontracting and limitations of the hiring of nonregulars; and 2) the strict and effective enforcement of labor standards, particularly minimum wages and Social Security benefits.
Social protection must not be seen as extending only to local workers. It must include our overseas workers, who are in certain instances the most vulnerable.
It is right that Congress should convene in special session to deliberate on a Magna Carta for overseas workers. The forthcoming deliberations will be a good occasion to address matters of policy and fact about the status of our overseas workers.
People forget that it is not the policy of my Administration to export our workers to foreign lands. That may have been the policy of earlier administrations, because of conditions prevailing then.
Today, our utmost desire is to keep more workers here at home—primarily because the jobs to fit their skills are already emerging. And we would like nothing better than to stop the movement of illegal workers, who are the most vulnerable to abuse abroad because of the insecure conditions of their employment.
But this issue is dictated by market forces, and we are a free society. A significant number of those who go abroad usually have jobs here or can find one if they want to; their basic motive for leaving is to find better paying jobs.
Selective deployment our best policy
The challenge then to Government today is one of managing labor migration. Overseas employment is not a Government program; it is a fact. Filipino workers now form part of an internationally shared pool of human resources, from which workers move across states by the rules of the free market and fair opportunity.
A ban will not work, even if Church and State join in decreeing and enforcing it. We must take instruction from the sobering fact that after we decreed a ban on the deployment of domestic help in Singapore, 50 such help migrated daily and illegally to the city-state.
Our best policy is selective deployment—trying as best we can to respect our workers’ freedom to work abroad, and helping them to find employment in the most humane work environments and in the better paying jobs.
Today, this policy is already working to stem the tide of migration—as in the case of entertainers—and to move our workers into more hospitable work environments, as in the case of our domestic help.
Meanwhile, as we move to improve the pattern of migration, we must now move speedily to document all Filipino workers abroad. Government accepts the responsibility of looking after our countrymen, regardless of status. But we cannot help them unless we know where they are and who they are.
Reaching out to protect our overseas workers
We will strive to bring everyone within the ambit of Government’s protection by mobilizing our personnel for the purpose. For this reason, I endorse the Department of Labor and Employment’s proposal to Congress that our overseas workers be required to register with our embassies and consulates on reaching their job destinations.
In addition, we will carry out these other measures:
First, wherever possible, we will strive to write bilateral agreements or arrangements with host countries concerning overseas workers. Three agreements are now under negotiation with Taiwan, South Korea and Qatar, some of which will include skills upgrading, technology transfer and entrepreneurial development.
Second, we will field 86 additional employees from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Labor and Employment to improve the ratio between Government service people and overseas workers.
And finally, we will expand our program of reintegration, which will help returning workers reenter our labor force through training, job assistance and livelihood generation.
Unions serve workers’ rights and welfare
When we reflect on the plight of our workers, we cannot escape the conclusion that their rights and their welfare are better served when they are organized.
Today, we focus much attention on institution and capability-building among trade unions and other forms of workers’ organizations.
Last year, we launched the Workers’ Organization and Development Program (WODP) to encourage entrepreneurship among workers’ organizations and provide them with relevant technical skills and assistance. P127 million was initially budgeted for the program. Of this, P60 million went to the unions, and P47 million to other types of workers’ organizations. P3 million has also been released to the Pambansang Tapag-ugnay ng Manggagawa sa Bahay to promote self-employment directly benefiting 1,500 workers and their families.
The WODP represents the Government’s commitment to promote unionism. For 1995 a P133-million fund for grants and loans has been earmarked for the program.
The right to self-organization
In all this, I hope I have made it plain that my Administration is committed to promoting the right to self-organization, particularly the right to join unions. I am told that some Local Government officials, particularly in the export-processing zones, have adopted a no-union policy in their areas—in the name of industrial stability and stable development.
This is contrary to constitutional law and public policy. And we will not tolerate this practice. The right to self-organization is enshrined in our Constitution, and no one may circumvent or suspend it—for whatever purpose.
As we take our place in the global economy, we do not intend to be known for a cheap labor policy. Our competitiveness lies rather in the skills of our workers.
Considering the adjustments we must continually make in response to the regime of the GATT-World Trade Organization, workers should more than ever be aware of issues governing economic development and be sensitive to the means for sustaining it. Workers must therefore participate in tripartite councils to reduce disputes and minimize the disruptive consequences of rapid change.
Adjustment measures
For instance, while the climate of industrial peace has greatly improved, I note with concern the increase of strikes in the garments and textile industry. I hope the Textile and Garments Industry Tripartite Council, headed by our top employers and labor leaders, can work speedily to solve the situation. I know that the strikes are partly or wholly related to GATT.
We have lined up adjustment measures to assist those who will be negatively affected by GATT. The P500-million fund is to be used for retraining, training, and livelihood and income augmentation activities—so that those most affected by trade liberalization can adjust. We have authorized the initial release of P200 million.
Outside of labor anxiety related to GATT, gains in labor relations have been sustained during the last three years. The incidence of work stoppages declined further by 24 percent in 1994.
For the first quarter of 1995, the rate of disputes prevention was 82 percent. On the other hand, the rate of disputes settlement was 92 percent. The Department of Labor and Employment awarded an estimated P2.7 billion in workers’ benefits arising from collective bargaining
The downtrend in strikes and lockouts continues. In 1994 strikes were down to 93, compared with 122 in 1993.
There is a growing acceptance of voluntary arbitration for settling labor disputes. In 1993, 353 cases were coursed through voluntary arbitration; this increased to 430 in 1994.
No Labor Day would be complete without acknowledging the role of my fellow workers in the public sector. In the past three years, we have been trying to reinvent and energize the bureaucracy in order to make it responsive to the dizzying pace of private-sector activities.
Unlike workers in the private sector, our workers in Government have fixed rights. And although the number of unions in the public sector has been increasing, their organizational rights are limited.
I expect that in the next Congress, the proposed Public Sector Code will be a priority agenda—to give our hardworking Government servants a degree of empowerment that is on a par with the private sector.
Employment strategy
Finally, I want to announce this Labor Day that your Government will launch this year a new study of a comprehensive employment strategy for the Philippines.
Changes in the global economy and changes in the country compel this fresh look at the economy and the people it is designed to serve.
I believe that we must devise a comprehensive and clear-minded program for full employment—which will guarantee adequate wages to all those willing and able to work. The growth strategy that will make this possible must be clearly outlined, so that we do not fall into the trap of contradictory policies and projects.
The new study will replace the Ranis Report of 1974, which took a long look at the employment situation and recommended policies to promote “employment, equity and growth.”
The recommendations of the Ranis Report were halfheartedly carried out, so it failed to have a lasting effect on the economy and unemployment. Today, with the economy stronger and more stable, perhaps we can strike a stronger blow for labor and employment.
When completed at the end of the year, the study will be discussed at an employment summit early next year, to which all the sectors will be invited.
Devising such a strategy now is vital to poverty alleviation, improving labor efficiency, and to making our country more competitive in the global economy.
A force in the global economy
My fellow workers, we have taken off from economic stagnation. But we have taken up an even greater challenge—one of sustaining and accelerating growth in our country.
In the hands of labor, management and Government lies the collective responsibility of maintaining our momentum. Quarreling among us will not increase the economic pie to be divided. By working together and pursuing common goals, however, we can modernize our country and we will matter in the global economy.
Labor’s role—our people’s role—is a great one in this effort. So let it be your pledge today—as it is the pledge of your Government and should be the pledge of management—to make this Filipino dream happen within our lifetime.