De Guzman: Labor’s turn to be front and center

Leody de Guzman —PHOTO FROM KA LEODY DE GUZMAN FACEBOOK PAGE

“Ka Leody” is next as we continue our recap of how the presidential campaign has revealed or transformed the candidates on the road to May 9.

(Second of a series)

Leody de Guzman of Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) is one of two “red” candidates in the presidential race.

But unlike the red-shirted Ferdinand Marcos Jr., De Guzman wears his crimson for the labor movement, the blood of workers in their struggle against capitalist abuse, and the fire of his party that challenges the status quo.

His unionist’s campaign is remarkable for its high level, range and consistency. His worker-centric platform is embodied in the slogan “Manggagawa Naman” (It’s the workers’ turn), which dates back to his unsuccessful senatorial run in 2019.

While his organization may not match the machinery of most of the other contenders, it has a compact core that commands attention wherever it goes. It is fielding the feisty former lawmaker Walden Bello for vice president, and environmentalists Roy Cabonegro and David D’Angelo and labor lawyer Luke Espiritu for senators. (The last became an overnight meme star following his lightning-bolt rebuke of a rival, the suspended lawyer Larry Gadon, who tried to cut in on him during a televised debate.)

PLM is also in the party-list race and is fielding a number of candidates in the congressional and local government contests.

Campaign promises

In an interview on state TV in March, De Guzman denounced how, in PLM’s eyes, the Filipino workers’ plight had gone from bad to worse in the past 30 years.

To explain his main motivation in running, he said: “Different candidates seeking various offices, especially the presidency, have promised to improve workers’ lives, raise wages, help farmers, uplift the lives of the poor. But it turns out those promises are for election purposes only. After the elections, the winners support the big businessmen and give them favors; the voters from the lower classes continue to be neglected.

“I think it’s time the workers, their problems and wishes, became the issue in the elections.”

True to his political color, De Guzman sees red in how the interests of labor have been subverted by the government’s neoliberalist orientation.

His stance is reflected in his campaign promises that unnerve many businessmen and investors, particularly the proposed one-time 20-percent “wealth tax” on the 500 richest families. The tax will generate around P1 trillion in government revenues, which can fund an economic recovery plan involving public-sector job generation, health reform, and assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises, he said.

De Guzman also promises to work for the adoption of a six-hour (from the current eight-hour) workday, a stop to all forms of contractualization, a ban on manpower subcontracting agencies, the abolition of provincial wage rates and replacement with a P750 national minimum wage, fully subsidized social services, and government intervention in the oil, electricity and telecommunication industries.

He also pledges to go slow on infrastructure spending and allot more public funds to health, education, food security, and the development of native industries.

‘Bourgeois’?

At 62, De Guzman continues to work as a cutter and delivery man in the small tailoring shop that he and his wife Marieza, a bank employee, operate in their home in Cainta, Rizal, and that was put up partly through her earnings.

He said he bought the lot on which the house stands using the funds he collected as settlement for his illegal dismissal in 1984 from a leather-glove factory in Pasig City, where he was a union leader and where he initiated a protest against low wages.

Thus, many of De Guzman’s admirers were surprised when, last Christmas, his social media pages carried a holiday greeting card with a photo of him and his family at a “lavish” Yuletide table complete with fine cutlery and crystal goblets, and with his children’s corgi and Santa Claus-costumed cat in attendance.

Many netizens were unsettled at seeing “Ka Leody” in a “bourgeois” setting, having imagined him living the life of the proletariat that he had been representing and fighting for. But his supporters came to his defense, saying that the “comforts” shown in the picture were what he envisioned for all Filipino workers.

De Guzman was initially mum on the issue, saying there were more important election-related matters to discuss. But when asked about it during a Facebook livestream last January, he said that his family was a “family of workers,” that they all worked hard for their material possessions, that the “lavish” Christmas dinner setup was part of a holiday tradition, and that the corgi was a gift to one of his children.

40-year experience

According to De Guzman, his pro-worker platforms are derived from his 40-year experience in the labor movement as unionist and organizer, mostly with the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), a socialist federation of militant labor unions that he cofounded and currently chairs.

He is counting on voters from the labor sector—estimated by the February Labor Force Survey at around 48.61 million, either employed or unemployed, out of 76.15 million Filipinos age 15 years upward.

But as in previous elections, the nebulous “labor vote” evaporated when the biggest labor groups backed other candidates for president: Marcos Jr. for the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and Vice President Leni Robredo for the Kilusang Mayo Uno.

De Guzman’s pro-labor and anti-neoliberalist advocacies have brought him to many places in the country and in cyberspace. As the campaign progressed, he spoke about multisectoral issues, airing specific plans for women, youth, education, migrant workers and their families, and health and nutrition.

His multisectoral campaign resembles that mounted by the labor-majority Sanlakas for the 2016 party-list race, in which he was its first nominee. Sanlakas also targeted and sought the support of various sectors, but failed to get elected.

But the approach opened for De Guzman “familiar territories” where he touched base with like-minded Filipinos, thanks to the efforts of groups affiliated with BMP and Sanlakas.

He toured urban poor communities in Metro Manila and nearby urban centers that faced threats of demolition and eviction. In one sortie in Antipolo City, he and his campaign team were blocked by a developer’s security forces from proceeding further.

‘Longtime oppression’

De Guzman is among the few candidates with particular focus on indigenous peoples (IPs). In Mindanao, he met with T’boli and Manobo leaders, promising to help resolve their problems concerning ancestral domain, poverty and discrimination.

In a recent visit to the Manobo in Quezon, Bukidnon, he narrowly escaped being shot. He was accompanying community members who were trying to move to a field which is part of their ancestral domain that the government recognized long ago, but is currently occupied by a plantation firm.

The local PLM campaign organizer and four IP leaders were injured. The town police are still investigating the violence.

De Guzman said he believed that he was not the one targeted. But he denounced the shooting as part of the “longtime oppression” of IPs in Mindanao by powerful politicians and businessmen.

Admitting that PLM is short of funds and cannot afford TV ads or giant billboards, De Guzman and his slate take every opportunity to promote their candidacies and platforms in official debates, forums, or one-on-one interviews.

But with preelection surveys showing him polling less than half a percent, De Guzman can only say that voters will choose wisely and remember his “people first, not profits” stand.

“My confidence in the Filipino people remains. They will side with the candidate who can present solutions to the problems they experience every day. Only a worker can do this, not the elites who live in luxury and popularity. What’s needed is for my platforms and stands to reach, and be heard, by the greatest number of voters,” he said.

‘Last two minutes’

De Guzman opposes Marcos Jr.’s candidacy due to the former senator’s supposed lack of capacity to be a leader and “historical background” as the son of the late dictator.

He regards some of the other candidates as practitioners of traditional politics and tools of political dynasties and oligarchs.

Using a basketball game metaphor, De Guzman said voters might still change their minds in the “last two minutes.”

“I’m offering a new kind of politics and economics that are pro-masses, and not for the rich. If our countrymen will not accept it because of our country’s long history with traditional, dynastic and elitist politics, so be it. We will continue the fight. What’s important is that I’m beginning it for our citizens, for genuine change,” he said.

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