By Argyll Geducos
President Duterte is keen on upholding his campaign promise of putting an end to contractualization of the country’s labor force.
Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra gave the assurance after labor groups slammed Malacañang for its supposed disregard to Duterte’s pledge regarding the end-of-contract issue or “Endo”.
The criticism stemmed from Guevarra’s earlier statement that an Executive Order (EO) alone cannot end contractualization and that legislation is required to amend provisions of the labor code that allows the practice.
“Hindi naman ibig sabihin na kung hindi magagawa sa pamamagitan ng isang Executive Order ang total ban on contractualization, ay ibig sabihin noon ay tinatalikuran na ng President ang kanyang pangako tungkol sa pagtigil at paghinto ng contractualization,” Guevarra said during the Wednesday Palace press briefing.
On Monday, Guevarra explained that the promised EO on contractualization has been under study in the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) for quite some time now but the problem still remains – the Executive Department cannot resolve it with just an EO.
“Batas ‘yun e. So kung kailangang baguhin doon, ang Kongreso rin mismo ang dapat na magbago noon,” he explained.
