Promoting labor and protecting the workingmen is always in the campaign planks of every presidential candidate in our country. One’s political platform is incomplete unless the cause of labor is covered by anyone seeking a public office. Creating jobs for our people is a genuine concern of every incoming administration from Quezon to Duterte. High employment rate is a valid yardstick to measure the health of our economy. And a president’s political fortune may rise or fall depending on how well he or she has served the workers’ interests.
A presidentiable draws his or her credentials as a defender of the workers. He or she believes that being identified with labor is a winning formula to achieve success in politics. As much as possible, he or she dissociates himself/herself from the bourgeoisie class to appeal to our masses. His or her campaign team packages the candidate as an avatar of the working class. Thus, it’s typical to hear the shibboleth, “Ipaglaban ang karapatan ng mga manggagawa!,” from the mouths of every candidate. And every politician shouts, “Wakasan ang Endo!” but hardly lifts a finger to render it illegal. In every election, promises are made to legislate a living wage to allow our average workers to maintain a decent standard of living to afford housing, food, education, healthcare and other basic necessities. But workers only to get a pittance every time the Regional Wage Board grants an increase. The gap between the minimum wage and the acceptable living wage has only widened through the years. With millions of Filipinos losing their jobs during this pandemic, the plight of workers has become even more miserable. More than ever, the need for labor to have a stronger voice in our government matters most at present. If their chosen representatives in the past have betrayed their trust, then it behooves them to elect somebody from their own ranks. At the national level, no leader from the labor front has succeeded to win even a Senate seat in recent years. Many labor leaders of note have tried but they all dismally failed. It seems that the last genuine labor leader who sprang from a legitimate labor organization was the late Senator Ernesto “Boy” Herrera of Bohol. Herrera was the longest serving secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). He spent all his life for the cause of labor and unionism. He was the first Asian and the second person to receive the most coveted George Meany International Human Rights Award in 1985, after Lech Walesa of the Solidarity Movement and former president of Poland. Another true friend and defender of labor was the longest serving Secretary of Labor, Blas F. Ople, who also served two terms in the Senate, post Edsa. He was also elected as the President of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1975. Unfortunately, after the two, no one from the workers’ group has won an elective national office.
In the forthcoming elections, a number of candidates representing labor are vying for national positions. In fact, one of them, Leodegario “Ka Leody” de Guzman is gunning for the presidency under the Partido Lakas ng Masa. Others are running for the Senate, namely: Luke Espiritu, a labor leader; Elmer Labog, a trade unionist; and Atty. Sonny Matula, a labor lawyer. Unfortunately, all of them are not figuring prominently in the poll surveys.
Ka Leody was the former president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and currently its chairman. BMP is one of the biggest federations of militant labor unions in our country. Ka Leody was born from a poor family in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. Despite his poverty, he struggled to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in Customs Administration at the Philippine Maritime Institute, but he found a job in a leather gloves factory in Pasig City. After the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, Ka Leody actively joined the anti-Marcos opposition forces and became a fixture in street rallies and demonstrations. He became a leading organizer of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawa sa Pasig, a leading labor coalition in the 1980s. He was a leader of the militant labor group, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), but helped set up its rival group, the BMP, together with Filemon “Ka Popoy” Lagman and others. Initially, he was BMP’s deputy secretary general but eventually elected as its secretary general, president and now chairman since 2018. Under his leadership, Ka Leody has clearly and boldly defined the positions of BMG and his political party, Partido Lakas ng Masa, on various critical issues confronting our country. As a legitimate voice of labor, he proposed increasing the minimum wage and ending contractualization. When he unsuccessfully ran for senator in 2019, he assailed the Mining Act of 1995 and proposed its repeal, together with the TRAIN law. As a candidate for president this time, Ka Leody has advocated a strong stand on relevant issues affecting our country. Politicians of lesser courage and conviction might have been deterred and daunted to meet them openly and head-on, but not Ka Leody. For instance, he supports the legalization of divorce and same sex marriage. He opposes the return of the death penalty and the lowering of criminal age of liability. He pushes for granting stipends to poor students and the implementation of a Universal Basic Income. Ka Leody favors renewable energy over the use of fossil fuel. He approves of the legalization of medical marijuana. As expected, he wants the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and the repeal of the Anti-Terrorism Law. He is against the red-tagging of activists, journalists, and unionists.
If elected as our president, he will amend the Rice Tariffication Law and will review the Philippine-US military agreements. His campaign platform covers a broad canvass of issues that a responsible and enlightened leader must address. It seems that Ka Leody has taken great pains to analyze our muddled problems and the big mess we find ourselves in. He may be lagging behind his more popular and privileged opponents but Ka Leody appears better prepared than most of them for the job. More importantly, Ka Leody is not a phony, unlike the others who wear a mask in public. Despite his poor logistics, he is able to put across his message in simple and plain language, which the public can understand. He criticizes his opponents but he’s not sharp-tongued or arrogant. He’s composed and disciplined on the campaign trail. In short, he looks more presidential than others. We may not vote for Ka Leody but we celebrate his brand of politics. The labor force has found its voice to champion its cause.