Lucio Tan evades again

PRESS STATEMENT
By Victor Briz President,
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino

Friday, 30 August 2002

Lucio Tan evades again

For once, but a fleeting moment, we agree with Lucio Tan's whining on the deteriorating state of country.

Lucio Tan calls a spade as it is, while he confirmed the Philippine economic crisis. In doing so, he contradicted Malacanang's persistent deception that the country has "sound economic fundamentals".

However, his analysis is but a half-truth. He blames politics, politics and politics for the worsening living conditions of Filipinos. An astute and shrewd tycoon, Lucio Tan evades capitalist liability on the issue of poverty in the same way as he eludes on his taxes.

Poverty is a question that is caused by the inequitable distribution of the social wealth that is generated by nature and labor. And at present, the scales of wealth distribution are tipped in favor of the propertied.

It is to be resolved not by simply "enlarging the bibingka" but by apportioning bigger slices to the toiling majority.

Capitalist society is but a mirror image of Lucio Tan's factories. From a petty entrepreneur, Tan has graduated into a big-time industrialist; his capital accumulating by leaps and bounds.

Meanwhile, his workers inch with their everyday existence, whose improvement is brought by their self-organization in order to collectively strengthen labor's bargaining leverage.

Hence, it is sheer hypocrisy for Lucio Tan to merely blame politics as the cause of poverty, not only because he stood as financier to elite politicians in their electoral campaigns - including his kumpare, the infamous Joseph Estrada.

Moreover, Lucio Tan has continuously derailed and resisted attempts by workers to improve their living conditions. Organized labor will never forget Lucio Tan's notoriety.

In his latest dastardly act, he blackmailed the workers of Philippine Airlines to accept a 10-year moratorium of their collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Even the 2nd division of the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, when it promulgated that the 10-year waiver of the Constitutional right to collectively bargain is legal.

But Lucio Tan is merely feigning hopelessness in his accurate description of the sorry state of the country. With all his riches and influence, he could easily shift his capital to China. And the good life goes on for Lucio Tan.

Yet, amidst the worsening conditions and growing destitution, militant workers would not share Lucio Tan's despair - presuming that he sincerely sees no hope for the country - we pin our hopes to the revival of a militant and broad labor front that would effectively struggle and affect changes in workers' lives.

The Yellow Economic Lucifer is also a blackmailer!