Of the 54.4-million registered voters for the May 9 elections, 1.3 million are overseas Filipino workers. This number of OFW voters plus the still undecided could spell the difference in the close four-way race for the presidency. The presidential candidates know this, which is why they are now singing the same refrain of ending the onerous “endo” practice of employers. The word “endo” like “kilig” is now part of the new lexicon in the colorful Filipino language. As anyone who has been terminated from employment knows, this is the practice of employers to end the contract of workers after the five-month period. As contractuals, the laid-off workers cannot collect separation pay or avail of health care benefits.
This illegal practice is what drives many of our countrymen and women into seeking better working conditions in the Middle East and other countries. They are extolled by the government as “modern-day heroes” who help prop up a sagging economy. Despite the economy’s surge, this has not trickled down to the masses but only added to the small number of Filipinos who make it to Forbes magazine’s select class of billionaire industrialists.
Why won’t big business help improve the lot of the working class? The answer is because it’s easier to control a few congressmen already bought than workers who will organize themselves into a union that will demand better compensation and other fringe benefits. This is why contractualization continues to this day. Some of this dirty money managed to reach the poor during elections when candidates buy voters to get elected or remain in power.
Big business, particularly those in the retail and service sectors, has managed to rake in billions of pesos in profits with the complicity of the Department of Labor under three presidents. By contributing to the campaign funds of candidates, businessmen assure themselves contractualization will be here to stay. And so will the outflow and deployment of Filipino workers overseas.
Clearly, the major intertwined issues in the 2016 elections are unemployment, poverty, corruption, crime, the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and China’s aggression in the South China Sea territorial dispute.
After three presidential debates held in Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Pangasinan under the auspices of the Commission on Elections, voters have yet to hear how the presidential bets plan to address these problems confronting the country.
White House race
In the United States, it looks like the race to the White House will be between billionaire businessman Donald Trump and former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Trump seeks to sew up the Republican Party’s nomination over Ted Cruz who has the support of Americans of Latino descent. He has tapped Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.
Clinton, on the other hand, is still facing a stiff challenge from grandfatherly looking Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. Health care and foreign policy are the two major issues in this November’s US elections. These two pillars of President Barack Obama’s policy have come under fire from Americans who now appreciate former President George W. Bush more.
Obama has enunciated the US military pivot to Asia-Pacific and assured that under the US-PHL Mutual Defense Treaty and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, Washington will come to the aid to the Philippines if attacked. In light of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, 100-million Filipinos are counting on US aid to stop China’s ambition for hegemony in the region. US treaty allies Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and even Vietnam have stepped up to side with the US against Chinese bullying.
Meanwhile, we have yet to hear from Aquino-appointed Foreign Affairs Secretary Rene Almendras on China’s aggressive moves and the Abu Sayyaf kidnap for ransom group who recently beheaded a Canadian hostage. Although he has a limited shelf life to fill in the last three months of resigned Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, one expects Almendras to at least speak out and issue a statement after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the barbaric execution of the hostage.