MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte was forced to veto the Security of Tenure (SOT) bill as it could initiate business closures that could lead to the decline of labor opportunities for Filipinos, according to Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo.
Panelo said it was not a betrayal to Filipinos, adding Duterte is still determined to stop contractualization in the country.
“The authors of the SOT bill, as well as the members of both houses of Congress, should not be crestfallen and disappointed nor should the labor sector feel saddened and betrayed by the President’s veto of the SOT bill,” Panelo said.
“While the President has vetoed the enrolled bill which attempts to strengthen the security of tenure of our workers,” he added. “The promise to end unfair practices of contractualization remains and will be pursued, if not soonest, still within the term.”
Panelo said the constitutional guarantee of the SOT does not authorize this government to oppress or cause self-destruction of our employers.
“Our country cannot afford business closures as it will pain us seeing a decline of job opportunities for our labor force,” Panelo said. “While no business can survive without its employees, nor can persons be employed without business hiring.”
“Labor and management cannot exist without each other,” he added. “The passage of the bill could also discourage investment and remove the great potential of providing employment to our unemployed.”
“The President has ascertained particular provisions in the proposed measure as “injurious to the stability and industrial peace of the rights of employers and employees,” Panelo said.
“Certain provisions like the intended scope of prohibited contracting will certainly result in placing capital at a difficult situation which necessarily stifles the rights of our Filipino labor force in the future,” he added.
“As jurisprudence states, the aim is always to strike a balance between an avowed predilection for labor… and the maintenance of the legal rights of capital, on the other,’”Panelo said.
Curbing labor contractualization was among Duterte’s promises when he assumed presidency in 2016, but the issue was left out of the President’s 4th State of the Nation Address on Monday./PN
