LABOR Secretary Benjamin Laguesma must be some Grinch for issuing a statement that wage hikes are “unlikely” in 2024, giving him and his department 365 days (since 2024 is a leap year) to deny any petition for relief. That Laguesma chose New Year’s Day to announce the bad news makes him a bird of ill-omen, unlike the swallow in the traditional Ukrainian chant “Shchedryk.”
Grinch stole Christmas and modern Scrooges dismissed Belsnickeling, or merrymaking during the holiday season in disguise, as a waste of time. But Laguesma farther by announcing that no Sant6a Claus or his Belsnickel would provide relief to millions of Filipino workers. “Shchedryk” was originally a song for a swallow that brings cheer and hope to Ukrainians in 1914, as Europe was buffeted by the Great War, and a wish for peace and prosperity to reign.
Since Ukraine broke away from the Orthodox Christmas and decreed that it will be celebrated on Dec. 25 annually, “Shchedryk,” rearranged by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1916 with lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky has gained purchase worldwide as “Carol of the Bells.” This is the same “Carol of the Bells” that was used in the “Home Alone” movies. Swallows usher in spring in Europe and North America nut here, Laguesma would have of the awallows of “Carol of the Bells” or the swallows that come back to Capistrano.
He is the crow, the raven and the carrion that portend a parlous future. Call it the turducken of Intramuros, the badly roasted turkey, duck and chicken (or lechon pabo, duck and Andok’s) in one piece that the Marcos regime gifted its overworked ands exploited workers on Jan. 1, 2024. The labor secretary’s statement practically predicts a dark year for labor at a time when the Marcos regime has been trumpeting a big gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Monetary Policy Report of Nov. 2023 issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) admitted that the expansion of 5.9% in the 3rd quarter of 2023 was still below the target ranging from 6% to 7% for the entire year. Money flows during the 4th quarter annually from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and from the US, which is still the biggest source of dollar remittances.
To hear Bad News Benny preemptively saying that wage hikes are unlikely this year is a tacit admission that government basically not interested in mitigating the plight of workers. Yet, the Marcos administration is being true to form as it has never been interested in implementing a legislated national wage hike. In fact, the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) thinks that Filipino workers are even overpaid and enjoy high wage rates. This is understandable since the PSAC is the executive committee of the state that profits from the blood and sweat of workers, and this PSAC is now also engaged in economic policy-making while its members also secure loans from, guess what, state banks. Malacanang will never increase wages even as high inflation rates actually reduce real wages.
Of course, compradors do not think their muchachos deserve a raise, and neither do the rentiers who make money out of their sloth, like the tech billionaires in the US who earn billions annually by sitting on their diaper-protected butts. If ever this moneybags care, they only allow puny pay raises that allow workers to replicate themselves. What the local plutocrats do is to ape the anti-labor and anti-union positions of the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Howard Schultz.
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chairperson Elmer Labog said on Jan. 2, 2024 that last year’s wage increases only ranged from P30 to P50, “just enough for a kilo of rice, or fare for a short ride in a modern minibus under the PUV Modernization program, or a one-way train ticket now that fare hikes loom in the MRT and LRT.” Not content with hitting workers, the government also wants to kill the livelihood of jeepney drivers and public utility vehicles by imposing the jeepney modernization program masterminded by the Duterte administration to “reduce pollution,” and actually to render more than 400,000 drivers nationwide jobless.