By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – National labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) welcomed the appointment “of anyone who is genuinely pro-worker, nationalist, and progressive” to the post of Labor Secretary.
In a statement issued Tuesday, May 17, hours after President-elect Rodrigo Duterte publicly offered four Cabinet positions including that of Labor chief to the Communist Party of the Philippines, the KMU said that since the Filipino workers have been suffering for so long, they need all the help they can get, including an ally or even allies, at the Labor Department.
“We hope that the appointee would back workers’ demands for a National Minimum Wage in the amount of P750 per day, for an end to contractualization, for respect for workers’ right to unionize and strike, and for the upholding of workplace safety and health,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, national chairman of KMU.
Although the KMU welcomes the appointment of such an individual to the Labor post, Labog said it does not in any way mean they will pin their hopes on that Labor Secretary.
“Given the systemic nature of the exploitation, oppression and repression of workers, unity and collective action are the most potent weapons of workers in changing their condition,” Labog said.
On Monday evening in a press conference in Davao, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte publicly offered four Cabinet positions – the only posts he said he could “concede” – to the Communist Party of the Philippines.
These posts are the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Although viewed as limited and straitjacketed by Duterte’s support of neoliberal economics, his announcement is still unprecedented in post-Edsa presidencies. The Communist Party of the Philippines has been declared legal and illegal by subsequent administrations post-Edsa – and most administrations had launched all-out armed offensives and sharp tirades against the revolutionary Left as led by the CPP.
As such, Duterte’s announcement has been treated guardedly by sectors unused to possibilities of sharing government with the Left.
There were no names yet suggested from the Left. In a discussion over Skype by members of progressive people’s organizations in Manila and Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of CPP and current chairman of International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) (currently in the Netherlands), he said there are many qualified candidates and they do not have to be leftists or communists.
Duterte described his offer to the Left as “maganda na iyan,” although given his other named secretaries and economic goals they could expect some hard struggle just to be able to implement small reforms.
“When the economic team of Duterte laid out their eight-point agenda, it reiterates that it will continue to give more privileges to foreign corporations to entice them to invest in the country. Economic charter change was also an immediate deliverable they promised,” said Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment.
Such an economic agenda had long been blamed as the reason why workers suffer low wages and intensifying repression.
But from Sison’s discussion with members of progressive peoples’ organizations in Manila on Wednesday, May 17, he said in reference to (Carlo) Dominguez, a landed member of Duterte’s economic team, that Duterte himself had expressed readiness to listen to the Left’s suggestions about the economy.
Sison also said that as long as channels of communications are open, as long as the people keep their vigilance and readiness to cooperate with an ally (such as Duterte), then for the benefit of the people, the Left must engage.
Sison said that even national democratic forces or activists who are not communists can be considered to take Duterte’s offered cabinet posts, rather than allow it to be taken up by “agents of oligarchs.” Hacienda Luisita lands, for example, he said, have to be distributed soon.
“Go choose among the ranks of patriotic, progressive forces,” urged Sison.
