The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM)
slammed employers for its call that President Rodrigo Duterte veto the security
of tenure bill. “The demand of employers’ groups for a veto of the security of
tenure bill exposes the raw greed of the capitalist class and their wanton desire
to maintain the abusive system of contractualization. As it stands now, the security
of tenure bill is already watered down but capitalists are not satisfied and want
it totally killed,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
“Should President Duterte surrender to
the demand to veto the bill, then he reveals where he stands on the class war
between the workers and capitalists on contractualization. It has been three
years since Duterte promised to abolish contractualization but millions of
workers continue to suffer from this abusive scheme. A presidential veto will
just be another betrayal of his promise to workers,” argued Magtubo.
Workers are set to continue pushing for
a strong security of tenure law with the opening of Congress on July 22. Various
labor groups are in talks for a coordinated march on the occasion of the SONA.
Magtubo stated that “Contrary to the
wild claim of employers that the security of tenure bill is superfluous because
endo has already been ended with DO 173 and EO 51, numerous loopholes allow the
proliferation of contractual workers everywhere. The security of tenure bill will
not end endo and will not stop contractualization because it is a weak version
of the proposed law.”
The security of tenure bill passed by Congress
is the version drafted by the Senate. Labor groups such as the labor coalition
Nagkaisa pushed for the stronger version of the security of tenure bill which
was passed by the House of Representatives.
“The differences between the Senate and House
drafts of the bill should have been ironed out by a bicameral conference committee
but magically the weak version was adopted in toto by Congress. The culprit for
watering down the security of tenure bill was lobby by the Department of
Finance and maneuvering by pro-capitalist senators,” explained Magtubo.
July 5, 2019
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