Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the Employers’ Conference of the Philippines’ National Conference of Employers

[Delivered at the Hotel Nikko Manila Garden, May 5, 1993]

Tripartism: the key
to growth

THANK YOU for inviting me to your conference, which comes, fittingly enough, close on our celebration of Labor Day four days ago.

I believe it was John D. Rockefeller—perhaps he was being ironic—who said that the power to create money is a gift of God. It may have been more correct to say this of the power to create jobs.

Of course, we are talking about one and the same thing. Yet it seems to me that in the creation of wealth, the critical bond between employers and employees has often been overlooked.

Three forces of production

Indeed, from the time of Adam Smith to that of Marx, from the heyday of the Rockefellers to the present era of the global economy, one thing has remained constant: those who employ and those who are employed are still the two greatest forces of production. Government has been a third—and increasingly powerful—force. But I have always believed its role to be that of overseer, and at most catalyst, of the ever dynamic bond between capital and labor.

This is why I am attracted by the theme of your conference: “Shared Destiny, Shared Responsibility: Strategy for Global Competitiveness.” The idea of a shared future achieved by a common and shared effort fits in perfectly with my Government’s underlying principles of people empowerment and global competitiveness.

In labor-management relations, people empowerment and participation in the new era of intense global competitiveness are best fostered through tripartism. Of course, even before people empowerment became the central plan of my Presidential platform, tripartism had already been incorporated, in 1974, into the Labor Code.

Tripartism recognizes that each sectoral partner—workers, employers, government—has a unique role in social and economic development, as well as in specific aspects of labor relations, labor protection and welfare. Our experience, however, has been that as each sector pursued its role—largely to its self-interest—conflicts have arisen.

Tripartism: the key to growth

Reducing conflict and dismantling the adversarial relationship between employers and workers is a never-ending quest. While this has been repeatedly undertaken by our three sectors, much remains to be done. As long as the conflicts between labor and capital remain unsettled, their combined participation in national development cannot be maximized.

May I ask you then the same favor I asked of our nation’s workers last Labor Day—which is to reduce, discard and eliminate, if possible, whatever tensions there are between you, and to try to accommodate each other in a spirit of undertaking, compromise and integration.

This means that you should try to see labor in a different light, acknowledging the role of labor organizations as legitimate instruments for workers’ rights. You must not discourage free collective bargaining as long as it is consistent with constitutional and democratic principles.

For its part, Government will not pay lip service to tripartism but will institutionalize it in policy making at all levels. We will encourage the emergence of strong representative organizations on both sides, enhance their participative elements, and provide the structure through which consensual decisions and actions by the three sectors will take place.

Indeed, my Government has gone a long way to manifest its commitment to tripartism. I have appointed to national tripartite bodies and agencies only those candidates who have been nominated by workers’ and employers’ organizations. This I have done without exception.

At the same time, I have expanded sectoral representation in such vital and sensitive agencies as the Energy Regulatory Board, the Monetary Board, the Board of Investments, the Council of Advisers to the Department of Energy, and the Presidential Council on Countryside Development.

I have also nominated six labor representatives to the House of Representatives. The nomination of these labor representatives to Congress is unprecedented—outnumbering the appointive representatives from the other sectors.

Economic recovery and national development

Of course, at one of my meetings with business groups, I was asked to consider the possibility of appointing an employers’ sectoral representative to the House of Representatives. I explained to your leaders that the Constitution reserves the sectoral representatives for the poorer and less advantaged segments of society, which the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines does not represent. I am sure any of the employers here present can well afford to run for election to the regular Congress if he or she so wishes.

But to prove my good will and sympathy for the Confederation, I’m offering any of you who indeed wishes to run for Congress a slot in our Lakas-NUCD-UMDP Party.

Seriously speaking, I’m all for the strengthening of workers’ and employers’ representation in Congress.

Right after I assumed the Presidency, I directed the convening of a national tripartite conference, which I attended. The agenda of that conference led to the discussion of such critical policy issues as human resource development through apprenticeship; subcontracting; speedy labor justice; the improvement of productivity; and labor-management integrative cooperation.

Not surprisingly, these are also key issues in economic recovery and national development—which underscore the indispensable place of our tripartite teamwork, and the tripartist philosophy, in our nation today.

“Philippines 2000″—our strategy

Indeed, the Medium-term Development Plan and the “Philippines 2000” strategy aim to realize our tripartite vision for the country. To achieve this, we will have to prime the pump over the plan period at a cost of some P700 billion—50 percent of which will be spent on building infrastructure. Such pump priming will focus on energy development and other public-investment programs like road networks, bridges, telecommunications, water conservation and irrigation, postharvest facilities and social infrastructure.

By 1998 per-capita income is projected to increase to at least US$1,000 and poverty incidence reduced to 30 percent, or lower, of the total population.

I am confident that we can still hit these targets in spite of the power crisis and its adverse effects on industrial output, employment and investment. We are doing all we can—aided by the Electric Power Crisis Act of 1993—to address the power situation firmly and decisively.

I am confident that my Government, supported by the private sector, availing itself of Board of Tourism and similar arrangements, will remain on track to provide the physical infrastructure and create the right climate for trade, investment, technology transfer, tourism and resource mobilization needed for growth.

This is a commitment I reiterate to you and to our people.

Today our economy is ready to return to the ways of growth. A stabilization program—begun in 1991—has reversed the macroeconomic imbalances which had sent inflation and interest rates soaring beyond 20 percent.

Inflation is down to 7.8 percent and lending rates are settling down steadily. Despite the dampening impact of the power crisis and national elections held last year, investment grew more than 10 percent in real terms —exceeding our most optimistic projections.

The external debt problem has been brought down to manageable proportions. International reserves are at an all-time high, and more and more investors are beginning to see the potentials of Philippine investment. New money continued to come in at higher volumes during this first quarter just passed.

Preparing for takeoff

Structural reforms have been put in place in many areas. The most recent ones allow the wider entry and participation of foreign investment, and special powers Congress has granted to allow me to deal with our electric power problem once and for all. In our energy needs, we have been encouraged by recent discoveries of oil and gas in our western province of Palawan—in quantities apparently sufficient to assure us of substantially reduced dependence on foreign sources.

Several Administration bills of major economic importance are now awaiting enactment by Congress. These include revenue measures to generate additional collection and to plug leakages in the tax system, as well as a bill that strengthens the Central Bank in its tasks of energizing the economy and controlling inflation. And there is a proposed landmark measure to open more widely the Philippine banking industry to foreign participation.

We are at the same time reviewing regulations that deter economic efficiency and business effectiveness. Rules that have allowed inefficiency to thrive in transportation, power generation, telecommunications and financial services, among others, shall be removed. And we are contemplating executive measures that will both expand and speed up the privatization program and generally streamline the public sector.

We are indeed now poised for takeoff.

I have given my word, and I will do my share. You, the nation’s employers, working with the other sectors, must now do your share—and more—to achieve our vision of “Philippines 2000.”