MOST workers and employees have received their 13th-month pay as mandated by law. At least they have additional money in their pockets for Christmas shopping.
My former comrades in the labor movement supporting former Senator Bongbong Marcos (BBM) posted on their FB account claiming that were it not for the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., Filipino workers would not be enjoying their 13th-month pay.
Some went to the extent of taunting that those against BBM should refuse this benefit. Most are aging like me could have lost their memory or been selective in recalling that were it not for the efforts of the organized workers' movement during Martial law, such pay was not granted.
Marcos Sr. as a dictator in 1972 issued Presidential Decree (PD) 851 on December 16, 1975 "requiring all employers to pay their employees a 13th-month pay." The benefit was for employees/workers receiving a basic salary of not more than P1,000 a month, regardless of their nature of employment. Employers have to release the 13th-month benefit to covered employees/ workers "not later than December 24 of every year."
The decree appeared like a "Christmas gift" by the dictator to the workers and employees. It also impressed that PD 851 started the practice of giving 13th-month pay when even before some employers were already giving this benefit in the form of a Christmas bonus or its equivalent.
In 2009, months before the 2010 national elections, I went to Negros to connect with workers' organizations that wanted to contribute to the labor agenda of a running candidate for president.
I met "Tatay" Zoilo de la Cruz, then the President of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry in the Philippines. It was the first meeting though I was a labor organizer working with workers' unions during Martial Law days. We talked about our experiences and labor issues
I learned from him that the idea of the 13th month's pay was his. He conceptualized the 13th-month pay and the Social Amelioration program in the sugar industry, and the payment of the cost of living allowance of workers in the private sector. He drafted the 13-month pay proposal and presented it to the National Tripartite Conference in October, 1975.
According to Tatay Zoy that he labor leader Eulogio R. Lerum sponsored the 13th-month pay at the Tripartite Conference. Lerum also proposed the 10-percent night work differential or premium, 5 days annual paid incentive leave, and payment by the employer of the 10% attorney's fee in case of illegal withholding of wages.
Through the efforts of labor leaders present in the Tripartite Conference, the minimum wage was raised to P37.00 from P8.00 in 1972 and the cost of living allowance to P17.00 daily.
The idea and concept of PD 851 are outcomes of the workers' unity at the Tripartite Conference. Marcos neither gave credit nor mentioned the ones who crafted the idea of the 13th-month pay the workers and employees are now enjoying.
Hindi lang pala pera ang ninanakaw ng mga Marcos, pati idea at konsepto.