Say amen to ‘endo’
The EO, which was read by Labor Secretary Bello, only reiterated the provisions of the Labor Code that prohibits illegal labor-only contracting and sub-contracting
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was in Cebu City yesterday to celebrate Labor Day. There is no truth to the rumor that he celebrated the holiday here to avoid the huge protest action initiated by leftist labor groups in Manila.
The president was the guest of honor at the labor fair at the IEC Convention Center together with former president Gloria M. Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga, sans the neck brace.
The labor groups expected President Duterte to sign the Executive Order (EO) that would end “endo” or the practice of employers to end the contract of workers after five months. The law mandates employers to regularize workers on the sixth month. Yesterday, Labor Secretary Bebot Bello read the EO prepared by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdia that ordered the end of “endo.”
So the president changed his mind. To recall, he said earlier that he would leave the matter of ending “endo” to Congress.
Before he began his speech, the president signed the EO in the presence of those invited to attend the event. He told the crowd that he did not sign the executive order in his office because he wanted them to be the witness of the EO signing.
President Duterte read Section 2 of the EO that prohibits the illegal labor-only contracting and sub-contracting. He said that it’s about time for Congress to amend the Labor Code. He clarified that he only executes laws but cannot legislate.
The EO would now be a template Congress can use in amending the Labor Code. The EO considers the “cabo” system or hiring workers through an agency as illegal.
Will the left-leaning labor groups now rejoice? They should because that’s what they have been asking the Duterte administration to do. However, they would not be satisfied with ending the “endo” because their ideology is against capitalism. In his speech spliced with jokes in Bisaya, the president said we have to balance everything because without capitalists there is no labor and without labor there is no capitalist.
Actually the EO, which was read by Labor Secretary Bello, only reiterates the provisions of the Labor Code that prohibits illegal labor-only contracting and sub-contracting. And it strengthened the workers’ security of tenure. It also ordered the labor secretary to implement the provisions in the Labor Code because, as the president said in his speech, he can only enforce the laws and not legislate.
It’s election time. Candidates for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in May feet. In Talamban, candidates for the barangay office have started the house-to-house campaign, or the way of “tokhang” (toktok ug hangyo).
In the town of Tuburan, of the 267 candidates for SK posts, 171 are overage, 34 are underage, 46 are not registered voters and 16 had been removed from the list of voters as they’re just giving the Commission on Elections (Comelec) things to do.
This only shows that overage and underage SK candidates are not aware of or have not read the new law on the age requirement for SK candidates. This simply suggests that that there are many candidates that don’t deserve to be elected because they don’t even know the law.