HARD DAY

A laborer along F. Gonzales St. braves the summer heat as he literally “breaks” his back in transporting large merchandise from carbon market to downtown area for a small amount.

As the country lauds Labor Day on Thursday, expect protesters to castigate the government to increase the minimum wage, end labor contractualization, and regulate the prices of fuel, electricity, and water.

Labor Day in the Philippines was first celebrated in 1903, when the Philippines was still under US rule. On May first of that year, the Union Obrero Democratica de Filipinas (UODF) led more than a hundred thousand workers to Malacañang to demand better working conditions.