By Manuel Cayon and Elijah Felice Rosales
Labor leaders will present to President Duterte on May 10 the draft executive order (EO) that will be used by Malacañang as basis in fulfilling the Chief Executive’s campaign promise of outlawing contractualization—popularly known as endo—as a mode of employment.
Alan A. Tanjusay of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (Alu-TUCP) said they already have the draft way before Duterte directed labor groups to write the inputs for the EO on Monday night.
“We have the draft and we will submit it to President Duterte on May 10.
We hope the President will accept the provisions,” Tanjusay told the BusinessMirror.
He refused to divulge the contents of the draft, as they were advised by their lawyers to wait for their meeting with Duterte before making public their recommendations.
“He told us last night to draft the ground basis of the EO, which will prohibit all forms of labor-only contracting,” said Tanjusay, spokesman of Alu-TUCP. “As we understand it, we will be having a dialogue with him on May 10 to discuss the draft.”
This was confirmed by Labor Undersecretary Joel B. Maglunsod.
“Duterte ordered labor groups to draft the EO and to submit it to his office on May 10,” Maglunsod told the BusinessMirror. “He wanted the provisions to come from workers themselves so it would truthfully reflect the plight of the labor sector.”
He added the administration was most likely inclined to adopt major points of the draft to fulfill Duterte’s campaign promise to end contractualization. Duterte heavily leaned
on an anticontractualization crusade to earn the backing of numerous labor groups.
Labor Day speech
Duterte’s Labor Day pronouncements followed his tirades in the same speech against the country’s oligarchs, who, he said, exploit their political and economic influence to continuously enrich themselves by using government land and properties at negotiated rental terms unfavorable to the government.
Duterte said he would propose the hiring of more labor inspectors to cover more work places from out of the more than 1.2 million establishments in the country.
In addition, he said he would ask the DOLE “to deputize labor unions and their staff to conduct inspections in the spirit of tripartism”.
“With a few personnel only, the DOLE can not be inspecting only 1,000 businesses a day,” he said. He met labor leaders for more than one hour before he addressed at 7:20 p.m. the crowd of workers commemorating the 115th International Labor Day on Monday at the People’s Park here.
“Give us time,” he said, explaining the delay in implementing his campaign promise to end contractualization to the administration’s move “to make corrections at ending endo because there are some employers who are seasonal and [who] engage in export”.
Labor has been complaining on the widespread abuse of the labor subcontracting through such practices as labor-only contracting and the 5-5-5, or endo, hiring practice to avoid the regularization of workers. “But I said [during the campaign] as I say it now, I stand firm in my conviction to end endo,” he said.
He added that the Labor Code has guaranteed the security of tenure of workers. He said this law must be strictly enforced. “To this end, I will issue an executive order directing the strict enforcement of provisions of law against endo and labor-only contracting”.
“What I only ask from your representatives, when you make the report, tell me the truth, don’t feed me lies,” he said, “because I may adopt your report and I would be only embarrassed, then there would be something wrong in our relationship.” He said he would also ask the labor organizations to file the list of their nominees for deputized inspectors.
ILO 151
Duterte also announced that he would ratify the 1978 C151, headlined Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention. It is an international convention “concerning Protection of the Right to Organize and Procedures for Determining Conditions of Employment in the Public Service.
The ILO 151 went into force on February 25, 1981, according to the posting of the document on the ILO web site.
“I am pleased to announce that I have decided to ratify the ILO 151,” he said. He added that he would also endorse the same document to the Senate for its concurrence. “May this serve the government’s commitment to continuously uphold the aspiration of a corrupt-free civil service,” he said.
Call to occupation
Early in his speech, Duterte zeroed in on the country’s oligarchs for much of the economic woes of Filipinos, and warned that he would call on ordinary Filipinos to occupy the properties the oligarchs are occupying now “if you do not return the lands and properties back to government”.
“Within the next three months, we would be telling you how much you have defrauded the government amounting to billions of pesos,” he said, “and if you will not return the land to government, I will ask the Filipino people to occupy the lands that are in your hands.”
“So those in Makati and Pasay, you can begin looking at nice spots there. Yes, we would be going there, and you can build your homes there because it is yours,” he added.
To the oligarchs, he said, “You can not be there for all time”. “I am addressing myself to the oligarchs, you who when you talk to government workers as if we are beggars, and as corrupt as you are,” Duterte said.
“We have been told that we don’t have the money and that we have to sacrifice and wait for things to happen,” he said. “But the truth is, while I was reviewing the contracts of government, including those private persons, that there are government properties controlled by only a few families in the Philippines”.
He said this was the anomaly kept hidden from the public and, thus,would make government equally accountable for the anomaly.
“What happens is that whoever becomes President, they would make them their kumpare [friends]. And so they are enjoying the privileges that were not given to the ordinary Filipinos, which are supposed to be theirs,” he said.
He said these oligarchs “own the trade and commerce, the business empires”. But he said they also destroy the environment, “and they don’t care and they keep on abusing the Filipino people”.
“So those of you who are occupying those government properties, give them up or I will ask the Filipino people to get them from you,” he said. “You already enriched yourselves and your families for generations at the expense of the Filipino people.”