(UPDATED) Candidate Rodrigo Duterte, when asked during the final round of presidential debate in Pangasinan April 2016 how he would address “endo” (end of contract), the practice of labor contractualization in the private sector, vowed to end it the moment he takes office.
Two years after, the promise remains a promise.
President Rodrigo Duterte has not issued any executive order to this effect, and Malacañang appears poised to pass the problem to Congress.
Watch this video.
UPDATE: On May 1, during a Labor Day celebration in Cebu City, President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order prohibiting “illegal contracting or subcontracting.”
Malacanang, however, did not respond when asked by VERA Files through SMS why there is a need for an EO to prohibit what is already illegal.
The Department of Labor and Employment already released in March last year Department Order 174 regulating contracting and subcontracting in line with Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code. The order enumerated permissible as well as “illicit forms of employer arrangement.”
At the Cebu event, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello read aloud the text of EO 51 s 2018, a section of which states:
“Section 2. Prohibition against illegal contracting or subcontracting. Contracting or subcontracting, when undertaken to circumvent the worker’s right to security of tenure, self-organization and collective bargaining and peaceful concerted activities, pursuant to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, is hereby strictly prohibited.”
Source: Radio Television Malacañang Facebook live video of speech by President Rodrigo Duterte, 116th Labor Day Celebration, Cebu City, May 1, 2018, watch from 3:31-4:02
The president in his speech read the same section:
“Section 2. Prohibition against illegal contracting or subtracting (sic). Walay multiplication ug division diri ha (There’s no multiplication or division here).”
Source: RTVM Facebook live video of speech by President Rodrigo Duterte, 116th Labor Day Celebration, Cebu City, May 1, 2018, watch from 13:53-14:02
He added that the executive order banning what are illegal acts by employers is the most he can do and that he “can only implement” the Labor Code in its current state. Articles 106 to 109 the Labor Code allow contracting and subcontracting:
“Mao na ni. Mao na ni ang akong pinaka-kaya gyud. Sinagad ko na (This is it. This is the most I can do. I have given my fullest).”
Source: RTVM Facebook live video of speech by President Rodrigo Duterte, 116th Labor Day Celebration, Cebu City, May 1, 2018, watch from 14:27-14:34
Ang (The) Labor Code, existing na (already exists). So you have to amend or correct. Or I recommend the entire revision or revisit the previous laws.Source: RTVM Facebook live video of speech by President Rodrigo Duterte, 116th Labor Day Celebration, Cebu City, May 1, 2018, watch from 21:05-21:17
Palace communications assistant secretary Kris Ablan told VERA Files EO 51 will be released tomorrow.
“It will be released when numbered and docketed,” Palace spokesperson Harry Roque, meanwhile, said.
Roque did not say why an EO prohibiting what is already illegal has to be issued.
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
