Maraming salamat po Kalihim Nieves Roldan Confesor ng department of labor and employment, binabati ko rin ang dating kasama, isang beterano at matalik na kaibigan, Pedro Mendoza, binabati ko rin ang buong tan family, si Johnny at saka si Ancheta, Undersecretary Chito Velasquez, Undersecretary Ben de Jesus, lahat ng mga namumuno ng labor sector at ang employer sector, the friends of labor and of the Philippines as well as the friends of management and our people, mga kasama at mga kaibigan.

Una sa lahat ibig kong ipabatid sa inyo na ako ay pumirma diyan sa social contract na iyan bilang testigo with the red fountain pen, iyong kulay ng pag-ibig at iyong kulay ng dugo sa puso, to manifest my deep appreciation for what you have forged in order to provide the proper framework for this two-day tripartite congress.

And so, I am very pleased to join our partners in this national tripartite conference. I have always counted on you to help us move our country toward sustained growth and development. And the social contract for development, for justice, for growth which we have put in the forefront of your agenda tells me that my trust has not been misplaced.

I called for this conference last August — at a meeting with labor leaders, most of whom are here today. Our dialogue centered on our country’s development goals and the problems that impeded their attainment.

These issues include as you very well know, wages and prices. The energy supply, the speedy dispensation of labor justice; jobs and manpower development; worker protection and welfare; and sectoral representation in policy and decision-making agencies, including congress.

I understand your impatience for government to take action on them. But I also know you support government’s policy of promoting tripartism, as the best means of arriving at mutually beneficial approaches and solutions to these issues, which concern all of us equally. We thus look at this conference as a necessary first step towards dealing with these issues, amicably, equitably and decisively.

So let me begin by saying how much I appreciate the sobriety with which you in management and in labor have shown in dealing with these issues since last August.

I commend our brothers and sisters in the labor sector for their restraint in exercising their collective rights — particularly for acceding to our request that they rethink their positions on the wage issue.

I also commend the employers for their expressed commitment to hold down prices while we are dealing with the energy crises. Our foremost concern is to assure industries a steady power supply — so that jobs, productivity, and growth are not sacrificed.

This conference is indeed well-timed. There is a folk belief in Region One — where I come from — about cleaning house windows before Christmas. And with that symbolic act, the family expresses its hope that the new year brings a fresh — and clear — outlook for everyone in the family.

This conference, therefore, is also a cleaning of windows. As we prepare for the new year — and the years ahead — we start from the recognition that, although we represent different interests, we have a common interest which is national welfare and national progress.

Our view of what is ahead must be clear. If we are to spell out our areas of joint endeavor — as well as what is expected from each of us — we must first be clear about our national targets.

Over the six years between now and 1998, we anticipate that an economic strategy led by investments and exports would set us on course toward newly-industrializing-country status.

As specific targets, we shall lower population growth rate from about 2.3 percent to about 1.8 percent. Real GNP and GDP growth rates must average from 6.0 percent to 8.0 per year — starting from 4.5 percent next year and reaching about 10 percent in 1998. Income per capita should rise by an average of 4.5 percent. And targets, once attained, should bring down joblessness from 15.0 percent down to about 7.0 percent.

These targets quantity what we mean by sustainable growth. We may, of course, be looking at these goals from different perspectives. But the social contract imposes on each of us the obligation of keeping in harmony with the others while moving towards our common goal of development.

I realize — as I sure you do — that tripartite conferences held in 1986, 1987 and 1990 set much the same targets — and failed to achieve all of them.

But this time, it is make or break: we no longer have the luxury of time as the previous speakers have said — you don’t have the luxury — for fumbling and failure. If we do not get our act together now, the rest of Asia will leave us hopelessly behind.

Thailand overtook us ten years ago — and now its GNP per capita is almost exactly double ours. Indonesia is already breathing down our necks — and, if our two economies continue to grow at the present rate, it will pass us before 1998.

These earlier tripartite conferences, of course, did not entirely fail. They laid down the bases for the generally congenial climate we enjoy in our industrial relations now. All of us — labor, employer, and government — have matured in many significant ways. One indicator is the steady decline of angry industrial confrontation.

I cannot over-emphasize the significance which government — and i personally — ascribe to the terms of our social contract. This has much to do with political and economic empowerment. I campaigned on that principle; and I am determined to give the concept of people empowerment a practical meaning.

This is why government advocates a job policy based on human resource development. This is also why government is promoting more intensively the individual and collective rights of workers, as well as their welfare, health, safety and protection.

Having seen the agenda you have drawn up, I am confident this conference will produce more policy reforms and implementing actions that will bolster our efforts to empower ordinary Filipinos. While I expect the various sectors here to define clearly their positions on every item in the agenda, I shall be particularly interested in your discussions on subcontracting and human resource development.

Specifically, i expect you to be able to reconcile subcontracting arrangements with the workers’ rights to self-organization.

I also await eagerly your inputs on human resource development — an area on which is placed much emphasis when I addressed the recent ASEAN Labor Ministers Conference.

We should now put our actions together to upgrade the competitiveness of our work-people. And this means both maximizing their human potentials, as well as improving the quality of their goods and services. Only a competitive work-force will enable us to survive in the increasingly harsh international work market.

And so only if we — government, business and labor — work together can we assure our country’s competitive position in the region and in the world.

Political and economic empowerment presupposes the full participation of our social partners in policy and decision-making processes. We have already decisively moved in this direction. I am taking this opportunity to advance this further.

I am pleased to tell you I shall soon be nominating those who will be labor’s sectoral representatives to the House of Representatives. Those that are about to be nominated must applaud if they want. Aba, pagka malakas ang inyong palakpakan ay dadagdagan natin iyong quota ninyo. Last week I started the process by nominating Datu joseph Sibug, President of the Tribal Communities of the Philippines (TRICAP) and a TOYM awardee, to the bigger house in his capacity as representative of the cultural community. Dapat mga mga kapatid, una muna ang mga katutubong Pilipino, first in-first out-first served.

Last week, as you know, I signed the bill creating a Department of Energy. That new department’s council of advisers shall have representatives from the consumer, industry, and labor sectors, five of them.

And so now, may I ask both the labor and employer sectors to submit through Secretary Confesor your nominees to this DOE council, so that I can act on them?

I also ask labor to nominate its representative to the board of investments who shall sit on the BOI board as an observer.

I have already cleared the matter of labor representation on the energy regulatory board. And I have obtained the board’s commitment that a labor representative shall be appointed the moment a vacancy occurs in it. But if the vacancy does not occur soon enough, I will create that vacancy.

I’m also pleased to announce that, pursuant to the NEDA Charter, the composition of the NEDA board shall shortly be revised through an executive issuance, my issuance — to include as well a labor representative.

In the interest of worker welfare, I am also directing the SSS to provide more accessible loan windows to its members.

All of these, of course, are in addition to the appointment of members of the regional wage and productivity boards from both the labor and employer sectors, the selection process of whom, we have just completed. The following have been appointed to said boards effective today. Sandali lang hindi pa ako tapos — as worker’s representative, regional board or the NCR appointee, chairman pascual jr., vice Joji Barrios, Region 2 Cagayan Valley; Edgar Batcheller vice Rogelio Ugarde; and Tiquillo Buslig vice Angelito Fernandez. Region III Central Luzon, Raul Remidor vice Pepito Galang; Region VI, Western Visayas, Winnie Sancho vice Vicente Cordite. Region VII, Central Visayas, Celso Riales vice Epifanio Nuñez; and Pabiciano Capitay vice Armando Alfonso. Eastern Visayas Region VIII, Emmanuel Cañete vice Philip Montante, Region IX, Western Mindanao Jose Suan vice Vicencio Sahagundo; Region X Northern Mindanao Florencia Cabatingan vice Gilbert Macarambon; and Region XI Southern Mindanao Jorge Aligardes vice Florencia Cabatingan who has been transferred to region x, and ask employer’s representatives of where there are vacancies, Region 1, the Ilocos Region Carlos Reyes; vice Eduardo Alcantara; and Region 2 Cagayan Valley, Estelito Ancheta; vice Felicisimo Juan. So this is what we have done for those boards.

But my dear friends, I must acknowledge that the various types of sectoral representation i have just outlined will really assume a concrete political meaning and economic advantage to all only if we are able to maximize job opportunities and increase productivity to enable the country to attain its targets.

Most of this depends on our urgent solution of the energy crisis. That is why I have pounded on the NAPOCOR to make sure that the fast-track power generation projects that are to alleviate the immediate brownout problems in Luzon, especially the NCR will be completed by the middle of 1993. Last December 11 we organized a group to visit and inspect where this fast-track project in Bataan for 300 megawatts, and this included legislators as well as the energy sector leader themselves. And they found that the work was ongoing according to schedule. Middle of January I myself will lead a group and I invite representatives of industry and labor to join me to look at the fast-track project at Pinacuan, Batangas City in Batangas Province, which I saw for myself during a briefing at the NAPOCOR the other day is also on track. And there are five other major fast-track projects that are for the alleviation of our immediate power shortage in the Luzon area. But this is not all. And these targets, these deadlines must not be confused with the regular program which this administration is also fast — tracking. And this is the so-called regular baseload energy and power development projects already beginning to move power supply well ahead of power demand within the next two years. Thereafter, we can shift to full high gear.

An important addition to the NAPOCOR projects on the regular program is that one that we launched just three days ago which was the 330 megawatt Cavite Energy Corporation Program with the support of foreign investors and even domestic investors where a $275 million 330 megawatt project was packaged entirely by the private sector with completely private sector, national as well as international financing and technical scientific engineering advise without a single centavo, according to them, of government funds or taxpayers money involved. And so this is the kind of progress we have achieved so far in our power energy development program. So let there be no mistake that this administration has been lagging behind in its commitment to you the producers, labor and the public at large regarding the top priorities that we have given to this important concern of our people.

And so my friends, beyond this conference, we must move from the platitudes of paper commitments because that contract that was just signed is still a paper. And we must relentlessly perform toward concrete results. If you are unable to resolve all of the issues lined up for discussion in this conference, I urge you to concentrate on the points on which we already have a consensus.

We have no time to lose, but yet we have the entire world to gain.

Kaya mga kasama, ako ay nagpapasalamat sa inyong lahat, sa inyong mga mahal sa buhay at sa sambayanang Pilipino ng isang maligayang Pasko at isang masagana, maunlad at mapayapang Bagong Taon.

Mabuhay tayong lahat!