TUCP tells Aquino: Lead from the front

THE largest labor organization in the country, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), on Monday called on President Benigno Aquino 3rd to “lead from the front” and convene a “national summit for a jobs program” and a “national summit on power, water and public transport.”

“The TUCP believes that all sectors of society will rally behind the President once he takes the cudgels for the real issues that plague the country today: unemployment, the power crisis, the impending water crisis and the public transport breakdown,” TUCP Executive Director Luis Corral said.

According to him, “(t)he Left and their outworn ideological prescriptions are now outwearing the welcome and tolerance of those who simply want investments that create decent jobs and arguably the governance reforms of Aquino are creating such a window of opportunity.”

“In the same vein, there are those presuming to speak for the basic social sectors in advancing a narrative of succession in 2015, (with one) painting a false picture of the administration and the other is doing a disservice to the nation in distracting the President from the real problems he has to address in the last two years of his administration,” Corral said.

He added that Aquino’s “failure to take up these real problems, not the elite discourse on 2015 succession, will be the prelude to an economic meltdown and collapse of his social contract” with the people,” he added.

The TUCP pointed out that a recent Social Weather Stations survey on joblessness and the static 7.1 percent unemployment rate represent the true picture of how far economic inclusiveness still has to go, that the power crisis is having a chilling effect on locators and investors and may lead to a new round of job retrenchments.

It said even as clogged ports have led to some 20,000 workers being laid off, ordinary workers risk death and amputation everyday as they take the dilapidated Metro Rail Transit 3 train system daily.

Meanwhile, the TUCP accused the government of playing deaf to cries of the National Water and Resources Board that El Nino threatens the country’s water supply for drinking purposes, agricultural use and electricity generation.

TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said the President is badly served by high officials preparing their golden parachutes or warming their chairs preparing for future electoral campaigns. - JING VILLAMENTE / Manila Times