PRRD to end unfair contractualization despite vetoing SOT bill

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the appreciation dinner for House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at The Manila Hotel on July 9, 2019. VALERIE ESCALERA/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte will pursue his promise to end unfair practices of contractualization, such as the labor-only contracting and end-of-contract (endo) schemes, even though he vetoed the Security of Tenure (SOT) bill, the Palace said Friday.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the SOT bill authors, members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the labor sector “need not feel betrayed or saddened” by Duterte’s action.

“We remind our workers that the President issued Executive Order No. 51 on Labor Day last year. The President ordered the Secretary of Labor and Employment to inspect establishments of employers and issue compliance orders, to ensure that prohibited forms of circumventing or frustrating the entitlement of our workers to security of tenure, as guaranteed by the Constitution, are eliminated,” Panelo said.

Citing the regularization of 462,428 workers from August 2016 to May 2019, Panelo reiterated that the Duterte administration is “resolved to put a stop to the practice of exploiting the working class.”

“This has never been done before by any of his predecessors. As a thinking and pragmatic President, PRRD realized that an over-reaching prohibition and without identifying exemptions on farming out services, deemed legitimate contracting, will adversely affect businesses, and trigger their closure, thereby cause the termination of employment of our workers,” he said.

Panelo added that the passage of the bill could also discourage investment, thus removing job opportunities to unemployed Filipinos.

“Our country cannot afford business closures as it will pain us seeing a decline of job opportunities for our labor force. While no business can survive without its employees, nor can persons be employed without a business hiring.

As jurisprudence states, ‘(t)he aim is always to strike a balance between an avowed predilection for labor, on the one hand, and the maintenance of the legal rights of capital on the other,” he said.

Duterte recognized that certain provisions of the SOT and End of Endo Act of 2018, like the intended scope of prohibited contracting, could result in capital placement difficulty, which “stifles the rights of the Filipino labor force in the future.”

Malacañang lauded Congress for heeding Duterte’s call to enact measures that are protective of the rights of our laborers.

It also urged Congress to craft a policy that will uphold social justice and fair play with consideration for the country’s socio-economic survival.

“We are confident that the honorable members of Congress will legislate a law that will be both protective of the rights of the workers and the business sector that not only will bring industrial equanimity but propel further the economy to greater heights for the betterment of our country and people,” Panelo said.