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In The Public Interest
First Published: Reflections - The Philippine Daily Inquirer Publication Date: 13th February 1994 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC Volunteerism is really cheap exploitation . The rights of workers to form unions and associations to advance their interests, better their working conditions and fight for just wages is a sacred and constitutional right that is frequently denied but can never be taken away. "Everyone is worthy of his /(her) hire" the Gospel tells us. The church teaches too that everyone has the human right to form or join a union and to strike, to have a just wage for labor done. But many of these constitutional and human rights are violated by the labor policy and practice in the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) the government run agency in charge of turning the former US base into an commercially viable area. The media follow the SBMA line that it is heroic and inspired leadership that makes it happen but some media people never seem to realize that it is cheap exploitation of hungry and vulnerable people. If it is so heroic the admirers of the system should volunteer three months of their free labor to the SBMA or encourage their children to do it. Few are sensitive to the denial of workers rights when it doesn't affect them. The rights of workers only came to be recognized at the beginning of this century. Before then the employer had that medieval mentality and the power that went with it to think of and treat workers as serfs, that is unpaid labor. The serf received no wages but was given the use of the land where he or she lived and could use it to grow their food and fuel and build a house. They worked on the land of the powerful landowner a lifetime for free or as "volunteers". They were subject to severe rules and regulations that deprived them of their human rights but at least they got something out of it. Today the "volunteers' are unpaid labor and they get nothing in return except a signboard telling the public how civic minded they are to save the base from overgrown and being looted. Cheap gimmicks like that do not fill an empty stomach and it's an insult to the people too because it is a form of cheap exploitation spun around to look like heroic action and the result of inspired leadership. Some volunteers are so poverty ridden that they pilfer to survive. Working for nothing and surrounded by paradise and the forbidden fruit how could they not fall into temptation. They only work for free for the SBMA because everybody knows that the "Certificate of Volunteerism" is an indispensable requirement for employment at any factory or enterprise in the SBMA. So much for a free labor market. This certificate is just one of 12 legal documents to get an ID or a job in the SBMA and an official letter given to all SBMA employers confirms it. Many have applied at the SBMA for work but were not employed because they did not have it. Workers in factories in the SBMA confirm that this was a requirement of employment and only the barangay captains can issue it. Since they are the appointees of the former mayor now SBMA chairman Richard Gordon he maintains absolute power and political control over the city and nearly every employee inside the SBMA. It is a form of extortion too if not black-mail .It is a policy that seems to say "No free labor, no paid labor". This must be changed and the volunteer must, in justice, be paid their back wages. I don't think the chairman or his followers who have well paid jobs in the SBMA and live in luxury there knows what it is like to have no money and a hungry family, no home and no hope. It is an abuse of power and authority to demand free labor and then make that an requirement of employment. It is intolerable, unjust and wrong. Now the World Bank has openly criticized this system of the SBMA which is a violation of workers rights and human rights. The United States does not tolerate such abuses in China or Indonesia has been outspoken about it too but why do they overlook such abuses here at the SBMA where unions are banned and strikes forbidden ? If acceptance for any job in Manila demanded a certificate of free labor there would be a public outcry, why no outcry here? well there is criticism but it is muted out of fear. There are armed bodyguards who are appointed to key positions around the city. Critics know that they are killers and they are afraid that something might happen to them or their children. One such bodyguard Juanito Susi was appointed by mayor Richard Gordon, now government employee as chairman of the SBMA. Susi was appointed during a public meeting to be in charge of the public market and the traders credit union. One day a youth was suspected of shoplifting. According to court testimony Susi caught the youth and executed him in public before a crowd with a shot to the arm and then point blank to the head. That was only last August 1992. Only two witnesses came forward to testify to the brutal murder . It is now still in court one and half years later and Mr. Susi is in the NBI office in Kalaklan, Olongapo city. What do learn from this? One he feared no one, his patron was powerful, the police his allies, his authority complete. He feared no punishment, he was taught that it was the right thing to do perhaps. When such an atrocity was photographed during the Vietnam war it caused a world outcry. Here there is is not even a press report. A lot of the local press too has been scared or bought off with privileges and pay outs. Some of the foreign press too blow into the SBMA , get the SBMA handouts, dash off a praise release and don't even think about asking if it was all true or not. They don't seem to be too interested in the truth any more. They believe what they see in the mirrors and behind the smoke. That is what we all believed about the 25 years of horror in Laguna. The terror there still goes on. Former Mayor Sanchez reigned supreme through martial law to the present, unquestioned and unchallenged. That's the way it is with powerful mayors and chairmen, they can rule unquestioned sand unchallenged. But it is in the public interest to change that so that all will be seen in the true light of day.
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