If the Constitution will undergo amendments, the proposed provisions must demand heavier burden from the government to guarantee quality life for workers and availability of funds for those who are ill or unemployed.
In his paper titled Ang Ating Saligang Batas at ang Paggawa (Our Constitution and Labor), Arsenio Garcia gave three proposals in the event that the Constitution is amended.
According to Garcia, there should be a provision declaring that it is the government’s responsibility to guarantee a “quality of life”, not just “living wage” or “minimum wage”, is enjoyed by the citizens. If necessary, the realization of this right should be made the task of private employers.
Second, there should be a provision mandating the government to perform, as its primary function, the task of ensuring that were will be enough measures to address the problem of livelihood for the unemployed, the sick, or the permanently incapacitated.
Lastly, Garcia suggested that it may be better to reduce the details of the current provisions, with the wordings containing only the directions or principles.
Garcia said that he favors amendment over revision of the Charter because the former gives more time for the citizens to understand the proposed changes for a specific sector, and thus avoids confusion.
On the other hand, the total revision only makes it more difficult for the citizens to understand the proposals if the changes are undertaken simultaneously on the Charter in its entirety.
Moreover, Garcia pointed out in another forum that the problem with revision is that it automatically restricts the choice of the citizens to a simple “yes” or “no”. This, he said, is not helpful if the person supports the provisions of one sector and yet disagrees on the provisions of the other sectors.
In the last part of his paper, Garcia said that a call for a genuine Cha-cha should galvanize the labor sector in pushing its reform agenda. A massive education campaign should be carried out in the process with the active participation of the labor sector.
Posing a question that also serves as a challenge, Garcia asks that in case a Constitutional Convention (Con-con) or a Constitutional Commission (Con-com) is chosen as the means to change the Charter, can the labor sector choose and support a representative that will become its true voice and rallying point?
To satisfy the equal gender representation of a genuine Cha-cha process, Garcia advised that the labor sector should muster adequate support to ensure that half of the representatives in a Con-com are women.
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