cbcp says labor has priority over capital
- From: "maude" <sylviapatis@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Apr 2006 13:36:19 -0700
WHATEVER justification workers need for their protests today, they got
it from Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the 122-member Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Lagdameo yesterday lamented that workers in the Philippines were
"oftentimes deprived of the just share of the fruits of their work."
In a statement on his Web blog, the Jaro archbishop stressed that there
should be "interdependence and complementarity" to achieve economic
progress, quoting from the "Compendium of the Social Teachings of the
Church."
Lagdameo noted that in any social question, "the rights of the weak,
the dignity of the poor, and the obligation of the rich, the perfecting
of justice through charity, must always be taken into account in the
just ordering of society."
The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, whose priorities
included transforming the local Church into a "Church of the poor,"
recognized the "priority of labor over capital," Lagdameo noted.
"Labor
Day can be a happy occasion for labor and capital/government to express
to each other how much they need each other and what they can give to
each other for the good of the country," he said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to announce today a "strong
package of amelioration measures" for workers, according to Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye. He did not give details.
"Because we have made significant gains in the economy, we can now pay
back the people, especially the working class," Bunye said in a
statement.
He said the President supported "a reasonable wage hike" hammered out
by the tripartite regional wage boards.
"A middle ground can be reached if all sides are focused on common
goals and principles, mainly the good of the nation," Bunye said.
The last time the wage board in Metro Manila granted a pay raise was on
June 16, 2005 -- a P25 daily minimum wage increase plus a P50 emergency
cost-of-living allowance. This brought the daily minimum wage to P325.
Bunye said Ms Arroyo will hold a "traditional dialogue with key leaders
of organized labor, including representatives of the informal sector."
"We expect a candid exchange of views on how to promote job security,
decent work and income extenders, especially to those earning the
minimum wage and below," he said.
Also yesterday, the House committee on labor and employment called on
businessmen to stop sounding the layoff scare and instead come up with
better wages.
The committee also pushed for proposals to further cut the workers' tax
burden and provide other non-wage benefits.
Acceptable hike
Representatives Roseller Barinaga (Nationalist People's Coalition,
Zamboanga del Norte) and Ernesto "Bansai" Nieva (Liberal Party,
Manila), committee chair and vice chair, respectively, said employers
and workers should find a compromise for an acceptable wage increase.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned that the
across-the-board daily wage hike of P125 being pushed by labor and
militant groups would cripple the economy, raise inflation and cause
more unemployment.
"The House has passed a tax break bill which, hopefully, the Senate
will consider as urgent," he said.
He was referring to separate bills authored by Albay Representative
Joey Salceda and Tarlac Representative Jesli Lapus which seek to
readjust the tax brackets so that minimum wage earners would be
exempted from the withholding tax.
Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano said there had not
been any legislated wage increase since 2001, when Ms Arroyo took over
from Joseph Estrada.
The perennial mass actions marking Labor Day in the country were
indicative of something "very wrong" in the Philippines,
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a former president of the
bishops conference, said yesterday.
Deaf, dumb, blind
Saddled by low wages and "underhanded treatment," workers plead and
bargain for more benefits and better working conditions, only to get no
reaction from a government that "plays deaf, dumb and blind," Cruz said
in a statement.
"They are repeatedly told that the peso in their hands is becoming more
and more valuable, yet the same peso they have buys less and less," he
said.
"They are loudly informed that the national economy is improving fast.
Yet their family economics is deteriorating even faster. They are told
to be thrifty as if thrift for them were an option."
Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales said earlier that workers
shouldn't be made to march in the streets to fight for increased wages
and benefits.
He urged the government and businessmen to take it upon themselves to
find ways to provide the workers with their just share of the fruits of
their labors.
.
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