Philippine presidents have used different strategies in their Labor Day speeches to appeal to audiences
02 Apr 2024

How do Philippine presidents frame their messages about labor and migration, especially during Labor Day? Studying this research domain is an important undertaking especially because the speeches have direct implications on labor and migration policies of the country. By applying textual analysis to 26 recorded and transcribed speeches covering the period of 1974 to 2016, the study found that presidents have employed a range of strategies. The researchers analyzed 26 speeches from Marcos Sr. to Aquino III and findings have shown that Philippine presidents use Labor Day speeches to address the concerns of labor migrants in a way that is often ambivalent and nuanced. On the one hand, the study revealed cohesion framing strategies that enabled the presidents to project that labor migration is a patriotic act, an economic solution, a way to increase and expand one’s skill set, and a way to rally support for the government’s policies. On the other hand, the presidents also used dissociation frames that enabled them to project the government’s heroic position, and blame external forces as causes of labor migrants’ problems. This reflects the complex relationship between the government and labor migrants. The study’s findings have important implications for understanding the political discourse of labor migration in the Philippines.
Authors: Jonalou S. Labor, Knulp D. Aseo and Meghan Therese M. Reyes (Department of Communication Research, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines Diliman)
Read the full paper: https://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/humanitiesdiliman/article/view/8803