Today is May 1, Labor Day. The world calls it a day of dignity. A day of emancipation. A day to honor the hands that build, the backs that carry and the hearts that refuse to quit, Wennie Sancho, Alliance of Workers Assn. (GAWA) secretary general said in a statement.
But let us be honest. For the ordinary worker, what does today really feel like? he asked.
For a jeepney driver, he starts before sunrise. Diesel went up again. His boundary went up too. But his passengers are fewer, because the people now walk to save the fare. He skips lunch so that his children can have dinner. This is the “rocket and feather” reality. Prices go up like a rocket. Wages fall like a feather. Jeepney fares, electricity, medicine, everything rises overnight. But the minimum wage crawls, if it moves at all.
And while the worker budgets every peso, billions vanish. Ghost projects, overpriced supplies. Health centers with no medicine. Schools with no roofs. Where did the funds go? Into the pockets that we will never see. Into bank accounts that we will never audit. Into lifestyles that we could never buy, Sancho’s statement said.
That is why Labor Day now tastes bitter. It was supposed to be emancipation from exploitation. But corruption has turned it into oppression. The worker is still chained, not by iron, but by hunger, by debts, by a system that takes more than it gives, he said.
“So today, we do not just celebrate. We demand! Wages that match the cost of living. Not after elections – we want it now. A living wage that could sustain the needs of our families. For the government to end corruption with convictions, not just hearings and press conferences. The focus is on Zaldy Co and other corrupt legislators, while the plight of the workers is taken for granted,” Sancho said.
For the politicians, stop mouthing words that praise the workers as living heroes and the primary social economic force that creates the wealth of the nation. These are words that merely slips from the mouth of the politicians to appease the anger and frustrations of the workers who are being hoodwinked by the politicians with no wage increase in sight, he said.
Stolen money is stolen food, stolen medicine, stolen classrooms. Policies before politics. We need price control that works, services that arrive and leaders who show up after ribbon cutting, Sancho said.
They can ignore our placards. They can drown our voices. But they cannot deny this truth. No politician, no billionaire, no government can last a day without the labor of the poor and the oppressed workers, he said.
“Labor Day is not a gift from those in power. It was won by the workers who refused to be silent. We will keep standing and protesting. We will keep speaking and questioning and we will not stop until the day comes when a Filipino worker can wake up, work hard, and go home knowing there is enough for today and tomorrow,” Sancho concluded.*
