You can fool some people sometimes. But you can’t fool all the people all the time.
It has become a vicious cycle. President Rodrigo Duterte wooing workers with an oath to end contractualization, only to back out on the promises he made.
He sounded resolute on the campaign trail and upon his assumption to power promised to end contractualization in three months, but nothing happened. Department of Labor and Employment Department Order 174 on contractualization was released exactly a year ago, but still it did not prohibit the malaise. From Labor Day last year up to March 15 this year, he promised to sign an Executive Order to end contractualization, yet no presidential directive has been signed.
Workers have gained nothing from President Duterte in the fight against contractualization but empty words and unfulfilled promises that sound like a broken record. In local parlance workers rate the performance of the President in fighting contractualizatoin as “bokya” or a big fat egg.
By failing to end contractualization by means of an Executive Order (EO) or other powers available to the government, President Duterte has added to the woes of workers. In Filipino, this is what we call “Kalbaryo” in reference to the passion and death of Jesus Christ.
Duterte’s betrayal of the workers’ trust is similar to Judas’ kiss of death after Jesus’ agony in the garden. This betrayal has led to the “kalbaryo” which is a slow walk with the burden of carrying a cross that ends in crucifixion, leading the workers to death.
A year of implementation of DO 174 has been a year of false hopes. Workers have been regularized with their principal employers primarily through efforts of trade unions such as in collective bargaining agreements. Also, complaints by trade unions have led to labor inspection, which in turn have led to orders for regularization.
However, in many instances, the regularization orders have not been implemented, or at worst, overturned by the Labor Department itself.
While DOLE claims 120,000 workers or so have been regularized since the implementation of DO 174, they have not divulged how many of these have been regularized with their principal employers and not merely with the manpower agencies or service providers.
The latest Labor Force Survey shows that the underemployment rate increased to 18 percent in January 2018 as opposed to 16.3 percent in the same period last year, indicating that jobs have been available but not of the decent kind that provide security of tenure.
Meanwhile, as the President fails to fulfill his promise to workers, he publicly takes on the cudgels for business people by saying he cannot dictate on them to stop contractualization “as it is their money” that runs the business. This is a far cry from his tough stance a year ago when he said manpower agencies abuse workers.
KMU was on a campout and vigil at DOLE on Wednesday night. They merged with Nagkaisa, who held a program at Morayta before marching together to Mendiola yesterday, the date of the President’s self-imposed deadline to sign the workers’ version of an EO against contractualization. Workers held placards and eggs in their hands, shouting “Hindi pagwawakas sa Endo, Sa Manggagawa ay Kalbaryo”.
Nagkaisa and KMU will initiate even more protest actions across the country in the days leading to Labor Day. #
