Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
On the 107th anniversary of Labor Day
[Delivered at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, May 1, 1993]
Empowering our
workpeople
MGA KAPATID, sa dulo ng aking tenure of office sa 1998, ang aking hinahangad ay magkaroon ng per-capita income of at least US$1000. The incidence of poverty by that time should have gone down from more than 50 percent to 30 percent. And the economy should have grown by an average of 7.6 percent annually. Investments should have risen from 22 percent of gross domestic product to 30 percent. Unemployment shall have gone down from 10.3 percent to 6.6 percent.
Ang isa pong maaaring pasalubong para sa inyo sa pamamagitan ng aming biyahe sa Tsina at sa Hong Kong ay ating nakikita, mga kapatid, ang increased job opportunities dahil sa ang Tsina at ang Hong Kong ay nagbigay ng kanilang commitment na sila ay mag-i-invest and they will trade more with the Philippines, resulting in more Philippine sales and exports to those two places.
Three preconditions to national development
But there are three preconditions to the attainment of our vision, which is the vision articulated by Representative Ernie Verceles, TUCP President Quito Mendoza and LACC President Chairman Danny Edralin, just now and these are the following:
First, there is a need for cultural rebirth and moral recovery that tap and exploit the wellsprings of Filipino values such as love and peace, and the bayanihan spirit of pagkakaisa at pagsasama-sama, resourcefulness and enterprise—values that must be revived to supplant the culture of confrontation and divisiveness, which today, unfortunately, still permeates Philippine society.
The labor movement should now set aside its internal differences for the common good, not necessarily to fall in line under one ideology, but to unite under the common aims of development so that it may become an instrument for the economic and social empowerment of our workers. The ongoing review of the Labor Code should reflect the constitutional preference for cooperative, voluntary and integrative approaches in labor management relations and the administration of labor justice.
The second precondition is the expansion of the economy through the dismantling of monopolies and cartels that control prices or limit the delivery of services, the privatization of Government corporations without ruling out the possibility of sharing their management or ownership with workers, and liberalizing trade to enhance competition.
Our economic development will not be advanced at the expense of workers’ rights. Nor do I subscribe to trickle-down economics, which you do not want, where the workers would be the last to enjoy the benefits of economic growth. Instead, let us promote industrial peace from which all parties and the nation itself would profit.
Twenty measures for development
Our vision is for each one to play a definite role discharged by a competitive, efficient, highly skilled, motivated and disciplined workforce, whose improved standards of living are premised on higher levels of productivity.
The third precondition is a solid infrastructure base, including an expeditious solution to the power crisis, if need be, with the exercise of my special powers.
I assure you I will not hesitate to use the powers under the Electric Power Crisis Act in order to speed up the solution to our power and energy problem.
To achieve all of these, I have programmed 20 specific measures to be undertaken without delay. And I have already signed the directive concerning these measures, which now must be carried out by various departments and agencies of the Government, as well as the proposals for legislative action:
1. For workers displaced by the power crisis, I have authorized the establishment of a one-billion-peso loan to be sourced from the reserves of the State Insurance Fund, from P438 million, to be made available immediately.
2. I have instructed the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), chaired by Dionisio de la Serna, to review the home lending programs of the key housing and funding agencies so as to make decent housing accessible to workers.
3. I have also instructed the HUDCC to expand the national shelter programs coverage to include dormitories in strategic areas such as in industrial estates to enable workers to live near their work stations at rentals below market prices. For this program to succeed, I call upon the employers to support the Government housing program to enable the workers to become homeowners more easily.
4. On health care, I have instructed the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Employees’ Compensation Commission to effect immediately the establishment of industrial clinics.
5. For overseas workers, I direct the DOLE to speed up and expand the implementation of livelihood, credit and housing programs through the assistance of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. I also direct the DOLE to set up industry boards for the protection of the rights of overseas entertainers.
6. Effective immediately, employee compensation pensions shall be increased by 10 percent. This increase is expected to benefit close to 20,000 pensioners with disbursements amounting to P13 million for this year alone and another P78 million in the next five years. At the same time, supplemental allowances for disabled workers shall also be increased to P575 while funeral expense benefits shall be increased to P10,000. The increase in supplemental allowances and funeral grants will total some P6 million in 1993 and P56 million in the next five years. These increased benefits will not require a corresponding increase in the workers’ and their employers’ contributions to the system.
7. I am also authorizing the grant of an additional P10 million from the President’s Social Fund for the workers’ fund to be used to support livelihood programs of organized workers. And I have here a P5-million check for the Kaunlaran ng mga Manggagawang Filipino, Incorporated, which has been identified as the project director for this livelihood fund but which would be answerable to the entire organized labor movement. Ito po ang first installment pa lamang; there is still P5 million coming to you.
8. I direct the DOLE, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Budget and Management, and the Department of Education, Culture and Sports to work out a scheme through which the equivalent of 5 percent of our GNP would be invested in human resource development.
9. I also direct the DOLE immediately to submit to me an employment and manpower plan to complement the NEDA’S Medium-term Philippine Development Plan, making sure that the interests and the concerns of the labor sector are intimately included and attended to in the DOLE portion of our Medium-term Development Plan, so that we can redirect and upgrade the use of our human resources from their agricultural pattern to an agro-industrial one.
Ito po ang aming isang mahalagang obserbasyon sa Tsina. That from an 80-percent agricultural estate workforce, they have now converted half of that farmer group so that now they have 40 percent in industries, 40 percent remaining in agriculture and 20 percent working in services. At iyan po ay isang susi ng pagpalaganap ng ekonomiya ng probinsiya ng Guangdong sa Tsina: Guangdong Province, which has a population just like ours of 65 million but a land area of only 178,000 square kilometers, or roughly 60 percent of our land area of 300,000 square kilometers. And yet they are able to produce a GNP in that province alone, as big as the GNP of the Philippines itself. And so that is one thing that we must redirect and ensure in the future, which is a restructuring of the pattern of our workforce from agriculture to a balanced agro-industrial workforce.
10. Even as I commend the DOLE’S special program for employment of students, starting this summer under their summer youth work program, I also direct the DOLE to carry out a national program to help the youth make effective career choices as early as possible to the limit of their potentials.
11. I also call on the employers to establish training fund accounts subject to guidelines to be drawn up by DOLE within the tax-incentive scheme in the Labor Code.
12. Effective today I have authorized the grant of additional compensation of P500 a month to be paid to public-school teachers with salary grade up to grade 25 and to the uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police up to the rank of superintendent and the uniformed personnel of the Armed Forces of the rank of lieutenant colonel. And to the rest of our Government personnel an additional allowance of P500 not subject to GSIS, HDMF premiums and income-tax deductions pending its formal integration into the basic pay of such personnel in the future.
13. A review of the Salary Standardization Law covering civil service employees is already under way. And I have given the review committee 30 days from now to submit to me its recommendation on the upgrading of salaries in the public sector.
14. To speed up the administration of labor justice, I direct the DOLE and the NLRC to address immediately the backlog of cases by effecting the immediate reassignment of labor arbiters in regions that have an overload of cases. I want the NLRC to reduce its case backlogs by 60 percent by the end of this year and to make its docket as current as possible within two years from now, or else.
15. I hereby instruct the DOLE to formulate the appropriate legislative proposals for the possible grant of a 10-day sick leave and the increase of the five-day service incentive leave for workers in the private sector. And on the implementation of absentee voting for those away from their voting centers including overseas contract workers, soldiers on duty away from their stations, as well as all others who cannot be present even if they want to in their voting centers on Election Day.
All of this is on top of the ongoing review of the Labor Code, which should result in proposed revisions to it, which I can certify to Congress as soon as possible.
16. Shortly, I will also be certifying to Congress four major bills concerning (a) the grant of paternity leave, paternity for those that are married, (b) the portability of SSS and GSIS membership and benefits, (c) the establishment of an unemployment welfare program and (d) the elimination of exemptions from SSS coverage.
17. I have already nominated several representatives to Congress from the labor sector. And I am happy that several of them have already been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. But there are some more who were not considered. Maybe, they were not scheduled, but certainly they were not rejected by the Commission in the last session. I intend to renominate those that there were not considered at that time. And so again, I call on the Commission on Appointments to confirm as soon as possible all those remaining from the ranks of labor who have not yet been confirmed.
18. I shall appoint your representatives either as members, observers or advisers, depending on what is provided by law, to the NEDA Board, the Energy Regulatory Board and the Monetary Board as soon as possible.
And I have also authorized, through Executive Order 21, the deputation of labor organizations in monitoring prices of basic commodities and the appointments of labor representatives to the price coordinating councils of both local and national levels.
19. Last February I sent to the Senate the recommendations of the tripartite Industrial Peace Council for the ratification of four international labor organization conventions on social security for migrant workers and seafarers. And these are the Equality of Treatment Conventions Nos. 19 and 118, the Maintenance of Social Security Rights Convention No. 157 and Social Security Convention No. 165, so that Filipino workers abroad can enjoy benefits similar to those granted to nationals of other foreign countries.
20. Finally, for today, in recognition of workers’ contributions to the development program of our country, I am instituting an annual Presidential Merit Award for outstanding workers who qualify according to criteria and guidelines to be determined by a tripartite body which I shall appoint.
Productivity and global competitiveness
Fellow workers, your empowerment is the most important component of our program for people empowerment—because it is from the enlightened and protected workers from whom we hope to get the increased productivity that will help move our country forward in our quest for economic progress. But worker empowerment can only be realized through the collective responsibility and implementation of all sectors. Productivity and global competitiveness are our goals.
And so, let us now act together to achieve these objectives. Otherwise, we shall end up still the Sick Man of Asia instead of the economic dragon that we aspire to be by the year 2000.