Pass SB 1826 Now!
Nagkaisa Labor Coalition believes that the reported signing of a MOA between DOLE and ECOP is nothing but a ploy to thwart the passage of the End ENDO Bill in the Senate. The timing is suspect. It is being executed and advertised widely while the Senate is on the verge of passing the End ENDO bill.
The MOA cannot change the miserable situation of our contractual workers. Only a new law can do that.
And what is more shameful of this turn is that the signatories to this pact represent the party of pathological liars and hypocrites as they have ever since been, together with DTI, the first line of defense against the workers’ struggle for the abolition of contractualization.
DOLE deserted from this anti-ENDO battle since day one when it issued department orders that would legitimize ENDO further. ECOP and DTI on the other hand have resorted to blackmail and the consequence of their actions was executive paralysis which contaminated even the Office of the President.
Now they are making a pact for voluntary compliance on ENDO? Were they not the same party who were making a fool of the workers by mocking their own decisions? Was it not DOLE which issues compliance orders on regularization but only to be defied by ECOP members? And now they are making a new pact?
Besides, what kind of pact on regularizing workers can DOLE and ECOP agree on, if it is done without workers, who are the supposed beneficiaries of this agreement? Clearly, in this case, workers are yet again the victims of their evil design. The mere act of signing with employers, behind the back of workers—an equal partner under the principle of tripartism and social dialogue—exposes DOLE’s betrayal of the workers.
Our senators must be getting bad signals from this insidious operation. DOLE’s action can be interpreted as the official position of the executive absent the OP’s strong push for the passage of the End ENDO bill. ECOP on the other hand may have succeeded in convincing DOLE and the Executive to abandon the End ENDO bill and opt for this MOA template instead. Or they might have been working on it together since day one to block any effort at changing the rules of the game in favor of workers.
We call on our senators not to be swayed by DOLE-ECOP’s fake advertisement. The End ENDO Bill is about social justice. It’s about decent work and decent life. The DOLE-ECOP MOA is just a PR stunt, perhaps fake news personified, meant to mislead the policymakers.
