Congress: A Hall of Injustice

The senators who voted for the anti-terrorism bill have nothing to say against the constitutional anomaly that while the measure gives the chief executive and the military vast authoritarian powers it is silent on Congress’ lack of power as a “check and balance mechanism” to executive abuse.

BY BOBBY TUAZON
Bulatlat

Members of Congress, pro-administration or otherwise, who shelved the bill providing for a legislated wage increase of P125 for labor and approved the anti-terrorism bill (ATB) got it all wrong. They may have made the influential business groups feel relieved by thumbing down the wage increase measure and the U.S.-supported Macapagal-Arroyo administration ecstatic because now it can use the ATB to legitimize the suppression of political dissent in the guise of counter-terrorism. But the double whammy – done in barely two weeks - for sure made enemies out of millions of starving workers and multitudes of Filipinos particularly their political organizations who now face the prospects of being tagged collectively as “terrorists” in defense of their civil, political and economic rights.

Their anti-people acts are one more affirmation why Congress is a doomed institution – scarred by pro-Arroyo legislators who use their tyranny of numbers to shoot down two impeachment complaints against the President and to shortcut constitutional change for self-serving political reasons; and reeking of recycled political dynasties who use the institution to perpetuate class rule through generations.

Recently, pro-Arroyo congressmen moved to recall the recently-approved House Bill 345 providing for a P125 (about US $2.50) across-the-board daily minimum wage increase for workers, staggered over three years. (The Senate committee on labor and employment had earlier adopted the same House bill.) The movers, led by Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla, cited “business concerns” and the measure’s “defects”, in asking that the wage bill be shelved.

It was evident, however, that they were acting on behalf of President Macapagal-Arroyo who had threatened to veto it following strong protests by the country’s business elite. In a brazen show of a pro-business stance, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) also warned about the disastrous effects of the bill on the economy such as mass lay-offs and business closures, adding that regional wage boards remain the best venue to determine wage hikes.

Crispin Beltran

Detained Anakpawis (toiling masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran, who as a leader of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May 1^st Movement) had fathered the bill since the Estrada administration, said the approved wage increase was not even enough to cover a family’s basic daily expenses. Indeed, estimates by the research think tank, IBON Foundation, show that the ideal daily income for a family of six has climbed to P766 (US $15.32) even as real wages have consistently fallen over the years. The current daily national average is P283 (US $5.66), according to the DoLE itself, the equivalent of only 36 percent of the required daily minimum income – or one-half if the approved wage increase is added in full.

Wage increase has been labor’s centerpiece demand in the midst of a state policy of salary freezes that has been pursued in deference to the business opposition and in compliance with an archaic economic paradigm that says cheap labor means more investments. Several years ago, Congress enacted a law deregulating the daily minimum wage standard and creating the regional wage boards to determine wage increases. Workers were also left alone to slug it out with their employers through a collective bargaining agreement for higher wages.

Yet the CBA has been rendered inutile by more policies and labor directives that undermine union rights and the violent persecution of labor activists. Not a few unionists have died or been maimed fighting for a few pesos and their right to strike. Not a few determined workers struggling to feed their families have been tagged as "terrorists" or, as other military officials would prefer, "communist terrorists." Now the government is about to be armed with a "legal teeth" to curb unionism and the democratic rights of other sectors.

Human security

Voting 16 to two, the Senate approved on third reading Feb. 7 SB 2137 or the Human Security Act of 2007, their version of the ATB with its contentious provisions defanged, according to those who voted in favor. The two nays came from Sens. Jamby Madrigal and Mar Roxas III. The Senate bill was authored by Senate President Manuel Villar with Sens. Panfilo Lacson, Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Alfredo Lim, Bong Revilla and Joker Arroyo.

Reacting to the Senate approval, CODAL, a group of lawyer-civil libertarians, said SB 2137 surpasses what the House version intends “to terrorize legitimate dissenters.” Many of its provisions, the group said, are in violation of the 1987 Constitution specifically with regard to the indefinite detention of “terrorist suspects” and repressive provisions on surveillance, opening and freezing of accounts, and other threats on civil liberties.

In a text message to Bulatlat, CODAL also warned that the ratification of the ATB, a “legal monster,” is being fast-tracked to be used against the opposition during the election.

Endorsed by President Macapagal-Arroyo as a priority bill in exchange for U.S. military aid, the ATB was filed in Congress to add “legal teeth” to her war on terrorism the thrust of which is actually in the form of counterinsurgency against the Marxist-led armed movement. With the counter-insurgency campaign - now the extended Oplan Bantay Laya II (Operation Plan Freedom Watch II) - under criticism both in the Philippines and abroad especially in the wake of the Melo fact-finding commission’s confirmation of military complicity in the series of extra-judicial killings of activists, the ATB is anticipated to be used as a legal weapon against party-list groups, people’s organizations and other institutions tagged by the military as “front organizations” of the armed Left.

Laws, especially the repressive kind, are always open to abuse. Portentous, as Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo had shown last year when she declared a state of national emergency and issued gag orders clipping the investigative powers of the Senate, is that the ATB offers the potential of being used against the critics of the President including members of the upper chamber. The senators who voted for the bill have nothing to say against the constitutional anomaly that while the ATB gives the chief executive and the military vast authoritarian powers it is silent on Congress’ lack of power as a “check and balance mechanism” to executive abuse except to say that the law can be subject to a regular review.

Congress has been sitting on bills filed by Bayan Muna (BM or people first) making torture punishable as a criminal act, calling for the immediate investigation of human rights violations and other measures intended to enhance civil and political rights. It is discriminatory yet incomprehensible for the legislature to enact a bill that threatens freedom while being torpid on bills that protect and enhance civil liberties. There is no sense of logic in approving a bill that increases the repressive powers of the executive department knowing that it will, as a result, marginalize legislative powers. Congress is not only an eroded institution – it is headed to its own doom. Bulatlat  

© 2007 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

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