TUCP hails Marcos-Biden meeting
THE largest group of Filipino workers lauded the complete package of guarantees brought about by the President Ferdiand Marcos- Joe Biden meeting.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the meeting of the two leaders is a game-changing and pivotal development—a rocket booster—to revive our economy and situate the Philippines as the new preferred foreign direct investment (FDI) hub.
This special US-Philippines friendship and alliance affirms Philippine sovereignty through the ‘iron-clad’ security pact and brings in key investments for renewables, mineral resources, solar energy, nuclear power, electric vehicles, green transition, food security, and other infrastructure. It means 76,000 new jobs for Filipino seafarers. It also means securing our fishing waters for our long-bullied fishermen and long-suffering consumers,” Deputy Speaker and TUCP president Raymond C. Mendoza.
“We especially welcome and look forward to the establishment of the United States-Philippine Labor Working Group announced by Their Excellencies President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and US President Joe Biden as they underscored their commitment to upholding human rights, especially freedom of association, and other internationally recognized labor rights,” he added.
“The TUCP believes that with this US-Philippine Labor Working Group, a dialogue with President Marcos and the Philippine labor movement is ripe to place workers’ rights and welfare front and center of the Marcos Administration’s labor and economic policies.
“Let us not waste the investment and employment potential of our US-Philippines special friendship and alliance. We trust our trade relations will be founded on advancing human rights so that workers can freely and safely organize without any prior restraint,” the House leader said.
Also, since the premise in establishing a U.S.-PH Labor Working Group pursuant to the U.S.-Philippine Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) is advancing human rights and ensuring workers can organize freely and safely, the TUCP believes that it is not referring to the existing DOLE and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) labor working group.
The intended TIFA Labor Working Group should include not just DOLE, but critically the DTI and Department of Finance (DOF) with a view to linking fiscal incentives to observance with international labor standards and our labor laws.
Mendoza said they deeply appreciate the earnest efforts of Marcos and Biden to bring to the fore the advancement of human rights and implementation of internationally recognized labor rights.
