New pension scheme eyed for uniformed personnel

The government is working on the proposal for a new pension scheme for uniformed personnel to address increasing pension costs.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said his department and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) are teaming up to design a new pension system for the military.

Dominguez over the weekend said the government is conducting an actuarial study to assess the reforms needed in the military’s pension fund

and cut the huge cost shelled out by the government for retirement benefits.

According to Dominguez, the government is targeting to finish the study within the year.

Dominguez said one of the options being eyed by the DOF and the DBM is to include uniformed personnel in the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Lawmakers, on the other hand, vowed to continue working for the passage of pro-labor legislation, particularly measures to protect workers’ security of tenure.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resource development, said the committee will push for the passage of bills seeking to end “endo,” effectively prohibiting labor-only contractualization and providing social benefits and protection for every Filipino worker.

Sen. Loren Legarda said the government should ensure that labor rights are the centerpiece of new trade agreements with the ASEAN.

Legarda made the call after Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo had said the regional bloc leaders apparently failed to push for a declaration on the promotion and protection of migrant workers’ rights during the recently concluded ASEAN Leaders Summit in Manila.

Taguiwalo said ASEAN heads and labor ministers expressed hope that the agreement will be signed in the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings in November.

She said the labor ministers would convene next month for a follow-up meeting.

The ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW) was signed on Jan. 13, 2007 during the 12th ASEAN Summit held in Cebu.

ASEAN labor ministers have set the April 2017 Leaders Summit as deadline for the signing of the declaration.

The Declaration calls on countries of origin and destination to ensure the dignity of migrant workers by outlining their obligations in the areas of: protection from exploitation, discrimination, and violence; labor migration governance, and the fight against trafficking in persons.

The Philippines, as a major labor exporting state, is one of the key proponents of the instrument, as well as of migrant workers’ rights regionally and globally.

There has been a deadlock between receiving states, Malaysia and Singapore, and sending states, Indonesia and the Philippines, on the creation of a legally binding framework.

President Duterte has promised to focus on the concerns of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), proposing to create an agency for them, separate from the Department of Labor and Employment.

Before assuming office, Duterte vowed to create a separate department that would promote the welfare and address the concerns of more than 2.4 million Filipino migrant workers worldwide.

Duterte also made a campaign promise to stop labor contractualization.

Fulfill the promise

Various labor groups are calling on Duterte to fulfill his campaign promise to stop “endo.”

The issue will be highlighted in today’s Labor Day protest actions, according to the Nagkaisa labor coalition.

“This is one of the rare Labor Day in the country’s May 1 actions and activities and this happens to be the first for President Duterte that all labor groups and trade unions in the country have one central message: for Mr. Duterte to fulfill his oft-repeated promise to end contractualization work arrangement in private and government workplaces,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesman for the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).

Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chair Elmer Labog has urged all workers to join the nationwide protests commemorating the 131st International Labor Day.

“Let us raise our voices and assert our demands for regular jobs, living wages, and free mass housing,” Labog said.

Federation of Free Workers (FFW) president Sonny Matula urged President Duterte to certify as urgent the proposals in Congress to strengthen the right to security of tenure of a worker.

The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, however, said they would not participate in the Labor Day dialogue and assembly organized by the government in Malacañang.

BMP chair Leody de Guzman said it would be pointless. “What we need and what was promised us was the end of all forms of contractual employment,” he said.