Imee not fit for Senate labor committee

July 30, 2025

The appointment of Senator Imee Marcos to the chairmanship of the Senate committee on labor for the 20th Congress is deeply disappointing to the Filipino workers, their organizations and advocates. It also signals the continuity of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s dismal record on labor issues.

Sen. Marcos’ designation on July 29 as chairperson of the Philippine Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, a standing committee of the Senate, is yet another instance of traditional politics. She was appointed to the position not because of her track record but because she belongs to one of the biggest elite families lording over the country’s government.

In her long record in politics, Sen. Marcos did not champion the labor and human rights of workers and did not stand up for unions and workers’ organizations. She was not prominent in authoring or supporting the most important pieces of legislation for workers in recent years – the bills for a significant wage hike and the bills against contractualization.

Sen. Marcos did not lift a finger to help political prisoners from the labor movement, currently 23 in number, gain freedom from detention. She did not help the families, friends and colleagues of the more than 200 labor activists who were extrajudicially killed under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s rule secure justice.

In fact, Sen. Marcos made herself notorious for only one thing – supporting the Dutertes in fighting various efforts to hold them into account for their crimes. Without accountability for erring public officials, labor and human rights will always be in a precarious condition, as politicians can simply ditch their responsibility of upholding these rights.

The appointment of Sen. Marcos to the Senate labor committee therefore signals a mere continuation of the Marcos Jr government’s very poor performance on labor issues. It is a statement that the current government is content to simply coast along on the labor front until its term ends.

This direction of the Marcos Jr government is most revolting for Filipino workers, their organizations and advocates. Filipino workers are reeling from a cost of living crisis, various efforts to press down their wages, the threat of mass retrenchment and other challenges brought about by new technologies, among others.

Sen. Marcos may use her new position to try to be on the good side of Filipino workers, but it is foolhardy to expect that she will truly stand up for labor and deliver results. Filipino workers, their organizations and their advocates have no other choice but to persevere in strengthening their ranks and amplifying their voices in fighting for labor and human rights.