May Day in February?

Hundreds of Filipino workers and laborers trooped to the Department of Labor and Employment to protest the rising job cuts being done by both private and public companies nationwide. Panasonic Philippines is purportedly the latest of a string of multinational companies closing shop in the Philippines. Labor groups estimate that more than 11 million Filipinos will either be laid off or will lose their shirts before the second quarter of this year. This is alarming considering that the unemployment rate is slipping faster than expected.

Labor groups are threatening to continue their strikes and demonstrations. Government employees subjected to the "rationalization" plan is also threatening to demonstrate against the current administration. The purported "surgical strike" against employees occupying so-called "redundant" positions smacks of what labor leaders call "union busting" since 50 of these employees are top union leaders. All throughout the country, thousands are being made to cut their working times by half or advised to report longer hours of work without additional pay. Some companies are encouraging part-time work. Some firms, particularly those in the garments sector are closing shop and "resurrecting" in other places with new employees signed as contractuals.

With more and more Pinoys joining the jobless sector, this causes an extreme threat to the stability of the state. As early as now, labor groups are expecting a jack knife rise in the unemployment rate. If this happens, that will surely affect consumer confidence leading to a slump or a slowdown in consumption. A slowdown in consumption will mean lesser production, ergo, more companies to close shop.

The slide of the Philippines to a deep recession is surely inevitable. In fact, compared with other countries, the Philippine bastion is sure to fall in a steeper altitude since the country will be the last one to give up the economic ghost in the region. Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and Hongkong have all declared their economies to be technically under recession. The Philippines is the last to call it quits.

Any stimulus package should address the labor issue more than any other since these displaced workers and sectors will need bigger financial assistance than other sectors. Mrs. Arroyo and her team of economic advisers should ensure that government is more responsive to this than ever since people are quite jittery over the bigger prospects of being made victims of this deepening global recession.

The state is also being held hostage by bigger interest groups seeking amelioration from their financial ruts. Pre-need companies are joining the fray, salivating with the prospect of taking a slice in the stimulus pie. While construction firms are just waiting for the finalization of their SOAs so that they could take their commissions from those juicy low-cost housing projects worth an estimated 82 billion pesos.

What is frightening is the stark prospect of a worker's revolt. The possibility of workers storming the bastille similar to the May 1, 2002 incident is not far-fetched. The eventual slip of the Philippines into a revolutionary situation is not a joke. Trouble could strike this perfumed conjugal dictatorship sooner than expected.