NO LESS than the President himself admitted his “anti-endo” executive order has no teeth.
In his own words during a speech in Quezon province: “My executive order was just veering toward ending it. I am prohibiting it but I did not put penal sanctions.”
But really, it’s not just the lack of penal sanctions. His EO is deceptive because instead of outlawing labor contractualization, it affirms it. Section 2 deceptively prohibits “illegal” contractualization defined as hiring intended to “circumvent workers’ rights to security of tenure, self-organization and collective bargaining.” This means contractualization continues unless the worker goes to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and do the difficult task of proving that his hiring was intended to circumvent his security of tenure. This does not add anything to the problem of contractualization which continues despite the Labor Code’s prohibition of illegal contractualization.
It seems that, according to Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares, Duterte only issued the EO when he noticed the growing workers’ protest against another of his failed election promise. The EO is nothing more than a deceptive ploy to appease the workers. Just another Duterte joke.
In fact, the Duterte administration does not intend to end contractualization as shown in its proposed Federal Constitution that deleted major workers’ rights such as the right to security of tenure, living wage and humane working conditions. The 1987 Constitution provides under Article XIII, Section 3 that “the State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized” and that the workers are “entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage.” But Duterte’s Cha-cha deleted not only the government’s duty to protect labor but the right to security of tenure.
The PDP-Laban proposed Federal Constitution did not retain the right to security of tenure, living wage and humane working conditions in Article XIII, Section 3 of its proposed Federal Constitution. Even the government’s duty to protect overseas Filipino workers was deleted.
This is another proof of the government’s lack of sincerity in eliminating labor contractualization. It also makes the President no different from any “trapo” making promises during elections just to get votes.
