We had to temporarily set aside, in the heat of the last presidential campaign period, the resolution of major problems that our active and retired workers face daily such as low wages, stagnant pensions, and the “endo” practice of employers to terminate—instead of regularizing—a worker’s employment at the end of his usual six-month contract.
We had the comfort then, anyway, of having all of the five presidential bets taking the same populist side on how to solve them. The exception was PNoy’s anointed candidate, who chose to adopt his position in vetoing the P2,000 increase in the Social Security System’s pensions that Congress had already passed.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has won the presidency, and now we are waiting earnestly the implementation of his actions to these problems the way he had earlier promised.
Meantime, my senior citizen friends and I would continue to browse over the electronic book copy of “Blas Fajardo Ople: Philosopher King,” which is a collection of quotations of the late Ka Blas that his daughter Susan had compiled from his essays, columns, and speeches.
There is a lot to learn from that book. Clearly, if Ka Blas were still alive today, he would be siding with President Digong in resolving our problems.
Ka Blas has become our most outstanding labor secretary while in the service of former President Ferdinand Marcos during the early years of his Martial Law. Known for picking only the best and the brightest to serve in his cabinet, FM did not err in appointing Ople on the basis of his reputed intelligence, writing skills, and grasp of labor issues.
His greatest achievements, according to Ka Blas himself, was in authoring the Labor Code of the Philippines that until now protects the rights of our workers, and in launching the overseas employment program that has improved the lives of millions of Filipino families.
The Labor Code created the Employees’ Compensation Commission, which now provides sickness, disability, death and rehabilitation benefits that result from work-related illnesses and injuries.
To support the overseas employment program, Ka Blas created the tandem agencies Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration.
He also launched the country’s manpower development program through the National Manpower and Youth Council. It is now the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
He initiated the payment of the 13th month pay and the Cost of Living Allowance that ordinary workers now enjoy. Because of him, unionists have maintained their rights to self-organization and collective bargaining, and settle their labor disputes at the National Labor Relations Commission in a non-adversarial and non-litigious process.
His accomplishments, all together, have raised the labor department from a mere bureau to a major force in national affairs.
His brilliance and leadership were recognized by the international labor community. Consequently, it elected him president of the 60th International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1975.
In 1953, Ka Blas joined the Magsaysay-for-President Movement, headed its Executive Planning Committee, and wrote speeches for Nacionalista Party candidates. Thereafter, he worked under Labor Secretary Terry Adevoso while also reporting directly to President Ramon Magsaysay as his technical assistant on labor and agrarian affairs.
He was appointed by President Cory Aquino to help draft the 1987 Constitution. He was later elected senator in 1992, reelected in 1998, and became Senate President briefly from 1999 to 2000 before eventually accepting the appointment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as foreign affairs secretary in July 2002.
He died abroad while on a diplomatic mission on Dec. 14, 2003.
Ka Blas joined the policymaking body of SSS—the Commission—as an ex-officio member representing government during his incumbency as labor secretary from 1967 to 1986. Strangely, he first joined it as a management representative in 1966.
But unknown to most of us —and even to Susan, perhaps —he had almost succeeded in merging SSS and the Government Service Insurance System through a bill that he authored at the Senate. This was enacted into law as Republic Act No. 7699 or the “Portability Law” on May 1, 1994.
Its Section 1 reiterates the often-declared “policy of the State to promote the welfare of our workers by recognizing their efforts in productive endeavors and to further improve their conditions by providing benefits for their long years of contribution to the national economy.”
But this section is unique in its mandate on what must be done later—
“Towards this end, the State shall institute a scheme for totalization and portability of social security benefits with the view of establishing within a reasonable period a unitary social security system.”
Sadly, nothing has been done to establish that “unitary social security system” despite the passage of a reasonable period—22 years—since the enactment of the Portability Law. The best that SSS and GSIS could do was totalized their members’ creditable years of contributions and paid pro-rata pensions.
If President Digong really wants to, he can finish establishing in the next six years the unitary social security system that Ka Blas had envisioned a long time ago.
All he has to do is merge SSS and GSIS.