1% dagdag sa SSS premium suspendihin o sagutin ng pamahalaan

Nanawagan ang Partido Manggagawa (PM) sa pamunuan ng Social Security System (SSS) at sa Palasyo ng Malacañang na suspendihin ang pagpapatupad sa 1% na pagtaas sa premium contribution sa harap ng kabiguan ng pamahalaan na tugunan ang kahilingan ng manggagawa para sa P150 na dagdag sahod, gayundin sa resulta ng surbey na nagsasabing 63% ng mga Pilipino ang nakakaramdam ng higit pang paghihirap sa kasulukuyan.

 

“Premyo sa produktibidad, hindi dagdag premium sa SSS ang dapat ipataw sa manggagawa”, sigaw ng mga kasapi ng PM sa ginanap na piket ngayong umaga sa tanggapan ng SSS kasama ng Nagkaisa Labor Coalition.

 

Sa halip na dagdag kita ay pawang kaltas sa sahod umano ang napapala ng manggagawa.

 

Ayon kay Renato Magtubo, Pangulo ng PM, kabawasan sa take-home pay ang 1% dagdag premium sa SSS habang papataas ang implasyon at ang wage orders naman na iniutos ng mga regional wage board ay di pa nangalahating maibalik ang nawalang halaga ng sahod sa nakalipas na taon.

 

Inilahad din ni Magtubo na may halos P90 bilyon, ayon sa COA, na hindi nakokolektang kontribusyon ang SSS sa libu-libong pasaway na employers na di hamak na mas malaki sa inaasahang koleksyon na P51B mula dito sa dagdag premium.

 

“Suspensyon o kaya ay sagutin ng gobyerno ang kontribusyon ng manggagawa sa SSS,” deklarasyon ni Magtubo.

 

Nagpoprotesta ang mga grupo dahil habang ang layunin anila ng SSS ay pahabain ang lifespan ng pondo nito sa pamamagitan ng dadag sa premium, ang nababawasan naman ay ang hindi tumataas na sweldo ng manggagawa habang ang mga benepisyo, katulad ng sa Philhealth, ay nananatiling minimal. 

PRESS RELEASE

14 January 2025

Government or employers asked to shoulder hike in SSS employee share

Amid the criticism over the scheduled 1% hike in Social Security System (SSS) contributions starting this year, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on either the government or employers to shoulder the increase in employee share for the current year.

 

“The increase in employee share for SSS contributions will result in lower take-home pay at a time when workers face extreme economic difficulties due to the cost-of-living crisis. In contrast, the government and capitalists have the capacity to pay. The least they could do is to lighten the burden for workers in the new year,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina City councilor.

 

Several groups and individuals have called for the suspension of the scheduled SSS contribution adjustment in view of the economic burden on workers and pending reforms in SSS, such as the failure to collect unpaid remittances from employers.

 

It was reported yesterday that the Commission on Audit (COA) cited SSS for its inability to gather some PhP 89 billion in collectibles from almost half a million employers. The COA called this “weak performance by the SSS in collecting premiums.”

 

Magtubo said that “These employers who deduct social security contributions but do not remit them to the SSS are misbehaving and criminal, or pasaway. Simply, it is wage theft. It is time that SSS wage a war on pasaway employers.”

 

He added that “Capitalists are more than solvent as they have increased their share in the fruits of production in the last 15 years of robust economic growth. Real wages have been stagnant in that period of 50% labor productivity rise. This implies an expansion of capital share, or profit in other words.”

 

Magtubo concluded that “Alternatively, the government can also subsidize the employee share in the meantime. A large share of government revenues come from workers’ withholding taxes anyway. Formal workers disproportionately bear the burden of taxation in the country. Workers’ payroll taxes are automatically deducted while corporate taxes are dependent on the declaration of capitalists. This is a double standard.”

January 6, 2025

Group lambasts PBBM as a Scrooge for not restoring Philhealth subsidy

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) lambasted President Bong Bong Marcos, Jr. as a Scrooge for not restoring the subsidy for Philhealth and funds for social services in the national budget that he signed today.

 

“President Marcos, Jr. is being disingenuous in his veto of a few line items as AKAP remains embedded in the national budget. Further, he is being dishonest in saying that Philhealth benefits will not be affected by lack of subsidy. Philhealth members and beneficiaries are demanding significant improvement of benefits—a 50% increase in coverage as was discussed in the budget deliberations & promised by Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa,” stated Judy Miranda, PM secretary general.

 

PM was among the coalition of labor groups, health workers and medical advocates that held a big protest to ask for the restoration of the Philhealth subsidy in the 2025 national budget. Members of the Nagkakaisang Mamamayan para sa Pangkalusugang Pangkalahatan marched to Mendiola in Manila last December 18 to call on President Marcos, Jr. to veto the budget and reform the Philhealth. Last December 26, members of PM and Sentro also held a rally at the Philhealth office in Cebu City.

 

PM reiterated its demand for the resignation of Herbosa and the Philhealth board for their failure to make good on their promises as well as for their inefficiency that has become an alibi for the zero subsidy.

 

PM earlier joined the Nagkaisa labor coalition in filing as intervenor in the Supreme Court case to oppose the transfer of P90 billion of Philhealth’s excess funds to the National Treasury. Moreover, the group has been demanding public laundromats and whole day childcare centers to ease the burdens of employed and unemployed women. 

Press Release

December 30, 2024

Subsidy to airlines must have pro-labor conditionalities

Photo from Asian Nikkei

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that any subsidy for the airline industry must be tied to conditionalities. “Public aid to private corporations, especially big business like airlines, should enhance social justice and workers’ rights. We demand that taxpayer bailout of the three local airlines must be conditional,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “Specifically, these conditions should include no layoffs, reinstatement of those already retrenched this year and institution of worker representation in the corporate boards of the airline companies. The airlines’ demand for P8.6 billion per month would easily surpass in two months the P3 billion spent for DOLE’s CAMP and P10 billion for SBWS that benefited workers. Withholding taxes levied on workers constitute the biggest portion of the tax revenues and thus labor is a stakeholder in any disbursement of people’s money.”

Last February 28, Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced a mass layoff of 300 regular employees allegedly due to the impact of covid. Then in March 19, Cebu Pacific let go of 150 cabin crew on probationary status because of covid travel bans. Finally on April 3, the 1Aviation Groundhandling Services Corp. retrenched 400 workers who were due to be regularized. The company services Cebu Pacific and is a joint venture of the Gokongwei-owned Cebu Air Inc. and another ground handling corporation.

“These 850 fellow airline workers deserve to have their jobs back as part of the recovery of the airline industry. No one must be left behind as the airline industry gets back on its feet with the help of taxpayer’s money,” insisted Eugene Soriano, former treasurer of the union PAL Employees Association (PALEA).

He demanded that PAL, before it receives any government subsidy, must implement the 2013 settlement agreement forged between the airline and PALEA to reinstate 600 employees retrenched in 2011 due to a controversial outsourcing program.

Magtubo argued that if the airlines would reject conditionalities on state aid for the airlines, the industry might as well be nationalized. “If the three airlines can only survive on taxpayer support, then nationalization is another option. Three private airlines competing for reduced passenger demand is an inefficient utilization of capital,” he averred.

PM’s demand for pro-labor conditionalities on government support is part of its call for “workers first in the new normal.” Part of its workers first platform are calls for ayudang sapat para sa lahat, balik trabahong ligtas, ayuda lagpas sa ECQ and makataong tugon hindi militarisasyon.

12 May 2020

Cancel MRT contract if you have real political will, Palace urged

Press Release

January 6, 2015

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) lambasted Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya for bragging about ‘political will’ in justifying the MRT and LRT rate hike, saying political will is best understood when imposed against a mighty force and not on the hapless poor.

Abaya claimed over media interview the other day that political will defined the major difference between the past and the present administration in dealing with the MRT and LRT fare hike.

“Political will do not differentiate the past and present regimes over this issue as they all bear the same class bias and more or less, the same failures.  PNoy is bolder to tread on the unpopular but that doesn’t mean a triumph of tuwid na daan.  If the President and the entire government cannot go after corporations and powerful people behind this railway scam, that political will assumes no effective meaning other than imposing the burden to the poor,” said PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza.

PM and other labor groups under Nagkaisa! participated in yesterdays protest actions held at select MRT stations.  They called on the government to run after private contractors who messed up with the metro rail system rather than shifting the burden to the poor.

“Everybody knows that this crashing railway system, the MRT3 in particular, was a product of an onerous contract.  The test of political will, therefore, is in the cancellation of this contract and the prosecution of people and corporations behind the scam, not penalizing the people who are the rightful beneficiary of this social good,” argued Fortaleza.

Fortaleza argued further that the Palace is making gross misrepresentation in labelling government appropriations made for the maintenance and operations of the MRT as ‘subsidy’ to commuters when in fact it is a guaranteed payment to that onerous take-or-pay contract. 

“The government bleeds heavily from this and congressmen from Visayas and Mindanao complain about inequalities created by this subsidy. We never see them complain, however, against powerful forces behind this mess whom they certainly know and perhaps worked hand in hand with,” concluded Fortaleza. ###

Workers to PNoy on MRT, LRT fare hike: ‘Penalize private contractors not us’

NEWS RELEASE

05 January 2015

The government must penalize the private contractors who messed up the operation of the MRT system instead of running after the meager income of workers who use the metro rail system regularly. 

 Labor groups under the coalition Nagkaisa! made this call as they kicked off the first working day of the year with protest actions against the MRT and LRT fare hike implemented by the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) last Sunday. 

 Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) President and Partido Manggagawa (PM) Vice Chair Gerry Rivera, who led the protest action today at the MRT-Pasay Taft station said, “Liabilities borne out of an onerous contract should not be passed on to consumers penalizing them in effect as in the case of the Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT) contract with the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) that built the MRT3 in 1997.”

He added that an ordinary worker who use the MRT will have to shell out at least P8,000 to cover the rate increase in one year. 

Rivera lamented further that instead of penalizing the private concessionaires for messing up with its contract to efficiently operate and maintain the system, “the government is rewarding them with steady flow of income from the fare hike shouldered by lowly-paid workers.”

On his part, Josua Mata, Secretary General of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (SENTRO) who led the protest action together with Public Services Labor Conferederation (PSLINK), PM and other members of Nagkaisa! at MRT’s North Avenue station, said the government should finally rescind the contract and take over the operation of the entire system so that the concept of ‘subsidy’ does not become a misnomer anymore for the take-or-pay contract. 

Mata argued, “When the government takes money from commuters through a fare hike and transfers that money to fraudulent hands of private companies, that is not subsidy. That’s malady.”

He noted that the fare hike is not meant for service upgrade but for debt payments to a private concessionaire.

The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) which led the protest action at MRT-Cubao station likewise believes that the fare hike is the bitter fruit of a failed privatization program of the country’s mass transport system.

Nagkaisa! vowed to conduct more protest actions this month against the fare hike.

A tale of two subsidies: Amid cuts in MRT/LRT subsidy, travel budget of public officials hiked by 90%

NEWS RELEASE

02 January 2015

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) has found another reason to oppose the impending fare hike in the metro rail system upon learning that government obligations to subsidize the travel budget of public officials has been increasing by at least P1.5 billion every year since 2011.

Fares in the MRT/LRT systems shall increase by up to 87% beginning Sunday, January 4.

“Clearly, there is a tale of inequality in this issue.  First, the fare hike, as admitted by Sec. Abaya himself, is meant not for service upgrade but mainly for debt payments to an onerous contract with a private concessionaire.  Second, the budget cut is imposed against poor commuters while travel budget for public officials keeps on increasing,” said PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza.

Fortaleza said that based on available data the MRT and LRT systems carry an estimated load of 500 million rides every year mostly from the working class.  A market survey done by Nielsen in 2009 showed blue collar workers comprising 41% of train riders; 15% white collar; 19% non-working; 16% students; 4% professionals; and 5% proprietors.

According to Fortaleza, while Malacanang has uncaringly decided to remove the P7 to P10-B subsidy to millions of train riders, purportedly to re-channel the freed budget to other social services, it resourcefully kept on increasing the travel budget of public officials by at least P1.5-B every year.

He explained that based on the Summary of Obligations of the National Government, CY 2013-2014 posted at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) website, travelling expenses in 2011 amounted to P7.8-B; P9.3-B in 2012 and P11.8-B in 2013. 

Under the general provisions of the General Appropriations Act, Travelling Expenses is defined as payment of claims for reimbursement of travelling and related expenses incurred in the course of official travel by officials and employees of the government. They may include free air, land and sea travel, fuel subsidy, hotel accommodations, and even parking fees. 

Fortaleza added that based on the proposed National Expenditure Program for 2015, travelling expenses amounts to more or less P15-B, hence an increase of 92% from P7.8-B in 2011 to P15-B in 2015.

“Compared to a daily crushing ride at MRT, the billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money appropriated for travelling expenses provided safe and comfortable travel to our public officials, many of whom do not utilize the mass transport system,” said Fortaleza.

The labor group disclosed further that VIP’s in government shall enjoy a good amount of privileges from the more or less P15-B of travelling expenses allotted for 2015.  They include the following: 

Office                                        Travel Budget 2015                         Daily Equivalent

Office of the President                        308,764,000                                           846,000

Office of the Vice President                  23,900,000                                              65,000

House of Representatives                   624,291,000                                        1,710,000

The Senate                                           280,672,000                                           769,000

The Supreme Court                             285,474,000                                           782,000

Likewise the heads of government agencies enjoy big amounts of travel budgets this year.  Fortaleza cites, for instance, the Office of Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), the agency that oversees the operations of the MRT and LRT system enjoying a travel budget of P69.9 million or P192,000 a day.

Meanwhile the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), a small office under the Office of the President, is getting a 38% increase in travel budget amounting to P123,410,000 or P338,000 a day.

Travelling expense, according to PM, is a major part of the government’s maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and forms part of the many perks and privileges public officials enjoy in the performance of their duties and responsibilities.

“Workers cannot ask for the same privileges unless we ourselves run this government.  It is absolutely just and fair, however, to demand better treatment amid the comfort and affluence of our rulers,” concluded Fortaleza.

The group called on train riders to express their opposition to the fare hike in various forms such as official petitions, social media campaign, and direct actions.

Subsidy is a good social policy; corruption and fraud are privileges of the rich and powerful

News Release

December 26, 2014

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) supported the view of Senator Allan Peter Cayetano that unless trillions of pesos of lost revenue due to smuggling, tax evasion and official corruption is plugged, the removal of MRT/LRT subsidy is painfully and socially unjust. 

“Subsidy is a good social policy.  It is a right, an entitlement of poor people while corruption and fraud are privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful.  By removing the subsidy, the government is renouncing  a good policy,” said PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza.

Quoting the World Bank, Cayetano said in every P1 collected by the government, P2 remain uncollected. This is estimated to be between P2 to P4 trillion of lost revenue or bigger than the recently approved budget of P2.6 trillion.

The Senator said he will take up this issue next year amid the plan by the government to remove government subsidy to the metro rail system. The plan will double the MRT and LRT fares beginning January 4. 

The labor coalition Nagkaisa in which PM is a member will be meeting next week to draw up plans against the impending fare hike.

Fallacy

Fortaleza said removing the P7-P10 billion annual train subsidy to free up money for other social services is a fallacious argument, saying the poor, who are entitled to government subsidy in varying degrees, should not, by class or geographical locations, be pitted against each other.

“This is comparable to the fact that businesses across all industries also enjoy billions of pesos of subsidy in the forms of tax holidays, financial assistance, free repatriation as well as import and export privileges.  For instance the power industry, the most lucrative business in the country today, received a total of P5.2 billion of subsidy in 2012, according to the 2012 Census of Philippine Business and Industry,” said Fortaleza.

Fortaleza reiterated his group’s position that it is more productive to provide annual subsidy to the estimated 500 million rides of blue collar workers and students who utilize the trains regularly than the luxurious lifestyles of 500 public officials.

Revenue and job loss

The labor group likewise bewailed the huge revenue losses coming from tax evasion and smuggling, saying the failure to address this age-old problem created a ‘pass-on’ culture in public policy. 

“This is the reason why the burden shifted heavily to indirect taxes like VAT and taxes withheld from wage earners.  At the same time smuggling creates abundance of cheap imported goods at the detriment of local producers.  And now the removal of subsidies,” lamented Fortaleza.

Fortaleza added that smuggled goods have no local labor component, which is both a revenue and job loss to Filipinos. ###

MRT/LRT fare hike adds violence to crumbling mass transport system

NEWS RELEASE

22 December 2014

 

Increasing the fares in the metro railway system more than half from current rates is totally unjust and the most insensitive year-ender policy declaration by the Aquino administration, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

 

“Most of train riders are ordinary workers who pay P15 or P20 for every violent ride in our present railway system. A fare increase will add more to this violence,” said PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza.

 

Fortaleza explained that a fare increase, particularly in MRT3, would neither mean comfort nor improvement in services as more than 70% of its finances goes to equity rental to MRTC, its original private concessionaire.

 

As per announcement made by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), the fare matrix in the three systems shall be adjusted beginning January 4, 2015.  These will include 87% hike (from P15-P28) for MRT 3; 67% (from P15-P24) for LRT 2; and 50% (from P29-P30) for LRT 1.

 

PM together with other groups under the labor coalition Nagkaisa will be planning mass actions to oppose the scheduled fare hikes.

 

Fortaleza said based on a previous study[1], 67.7% of regular train commuters earned monthly income of less than P10,000 or less than the minimum wage; some 15% are without income (probably students); while only 1.4% are with income of P30,000.

 

PM is opposing the impending fare hike based on the following grounds:

 

§  The fare hike is due to the removal of subsidy and not for the comfort of the riding public.

§  It is a huge burden to commuters, most of whom are ordinary workers who receive starvation wages.

§  The increase is for rental payments to an onerous original contract and an incentive to prospective private concessionaires under the public-private partnership or PPP program.

§  That less subsidy means funds for other services is a pale, fallacious argument.

 

The group argued that in  most countries worldwide the railway system, which is the most efficient mass transport system, is heavily subsidized.

 

In its position paper submitted to the DOTC during its previous consultations, PM believes that subsidy is not a bad thing if it is in pursuit of social objective.  The government should even invest more money to save and develop the country’s crumbling mass transport system.

 

“To us, subsidizing at least 500 million rides of workers a year is more productive than subsidizing the comfortable travel of 500 VIPs in government,” said Fortaleza, adding that all taxpayers pay for at least P8-billion a year of travel subsidy for our public officials.

 

The group, which opposes the privatization of the railway system, likewise believe that the fare adjustments were meant as a major  incentive for private players who demand highly competitive pricing to be  in place before they actually enter a PPP project.

Postponement of MRT and LRT rate hikes a media stunt to promote privatization

PRESS RELEASE

11 May 2011

Malacañang’s postponement of the planned rate hikes in the MRT and LRT systems should not be taken as a considerate act of shielding the interest of the commuting public against price hikes but more of a deliberate stint for promoting the planned privatization of the railway mass transport systems, the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

PM is opposing not only the recently approved fare hikes in LRT and MRT but also the privatization of these public utilities.  The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has approved the new rates for MRT and LRT lines 1 and 2,  just a day after the NCR wage board granted workers P22 cost of living allowance (COLA).

The new rates would require commuters to pay P11 boarding fee, with an additional P1 for every succeeding kilometre.  Accordingly, the P20 fare for LRT line 1 from

Roosevelt Avenue

in Quezon City to Baclaran in Parañaque City will be increased to P30, while the P15 fare in LRT line 2 from Marikina City to Legarda in Manila will be hiked to P25.

But transportation officials said the hike is to be postponed amid the soaring prices of other basic commodities.  PM Chair Renato Magtubo said the postponement also has nothing to do with the rising prices of other commodities as claimed by a Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) official, but more with the rush to privatize said firms.  He stated “Nor it can be presumed as a freebie to the measly cost of living allowance (COLA) granted by the wage boards to metro workers.”

The LRT system is the first to be bid out under P-Noy’s Public-Private Partnership Program.  DoTC officials claim that the private sector can do a better job in operating public utilities.  The government said it is spending at least P7 billion in subsidies to the MRT-LRT to keep fares affordable to ordinary commuters. 

The labor party said the Philippine privatization program begins with this usual propaganda line: That the government is losing money in running public utilities and the private sector can do a better job in managing them.

Earlier, Transportation Undersecretary Glicerio Sicat, head of the DoTC’s rail transport group, said the privatization of key government services had led to more efficient operations, citing as an example the privatization of public services such as water and electricity distribution which he claimed led to better and more reliable services.

But Magtubo said both P-Noy and Sicat were either absent or just cared for nothing during the last ten years to feel the impact of water and power privatization to ordinary consumers.

“The water and power privatization in the country is one of the largest privatization projects in the world.  After ten years electricity rates doubled and water rates increased by not less than 500% -- the main reason why we have one of the highest electricity and water rates in the world,” explained Magtubo.

Philippine privatization, the group added, led to the rise of private monopolies which destroys all the myths of free competition as mergers and acquisitions led to further monopolization of the market as shown in the case of PLDT-Digitel buyout – the same thing that is happening in the power and water industry.

PM insists that the light railway system is better left public, its rates remain subsidized, and service area even expanded to serve more poor commuters of the metropolis and nearby provinces. 

“The light rail should be maintained as the cheapest, most efficient and greenest mass transport in the country. Every peso spent by the government on subsidizing the LRT and MRT is money well spent. It does not only benefit the workers, students and the poor but protects the environment as well,” insisted Magtubo.

The group said that the cost-benefit accounting of the LRT/MRT operation should include a consideration of its “social good” delivered which cannot be quantified in money terms.

Workers group oppose LRT/MRT hike, call for cheap, green mass transport

Press Release

February 5, 2011

In the public hearing called today by the Department of Transport and Communications, the labor party Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) declared its opposition to the planned fare hike and called for a cheap and green mass transport system. “The government of PNoy must extend and expand the subsidy to the riding public instead of passing the burden to the people of high transport costs,” stated Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

PM received an invitation from the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) to attend today’s second of three public consultation hearings. A representative of PM came to the hearing to put forward the labor party’s position.

Magtubo clarified that “The MRT and LRT is a great counterbalance to the profit orientation of the private transport. Yesterday the Land Transportation and Franchising Board suspended another four bus companies for participating in the transport holiday last November. Without a public mass transport, the government and the people can always be held hostage by private transport firms out to guard their selfish interests.”

“The light rail should be maintained as the cheapest, most efficient and greenest mass transport in the country. Every peso spent by the government on subsidizing the LRT and MRT is money well spent. It not only benefits the workers, students and the poor but protects the environment as well,” insisted Magtubo.

The group is arguing that the cost-benefit accounting of the LRT/MRT operation should include “a consideration of its social good that cannot be quantified in money terms.”

“The prices of rice, sugar, oil, gas and fare among others are rising thus squeezing the stagnant wages and incomes of workers and the poor. If the government will not institute price control then it must subsidize the costs of basic goods and services together with increasing wages and providing jobs,” Magtubo said.

PM warned of unrest in the country similar to the uprisings in the Arab countries due to the rising fares and prices of food and oil combined with worsening unemployment and poverty.  Magtubo claimed that “PNoy must act boldly to address the food crisis, escalating inflation and deepening hardship of Filipinos. Nobody was able to predict the explosion in the Arab region and nobody can discount unrest in the Philippines due to similar conditions of widespread desperation among workers, youth and the poor.”

. 

He added that “Aside from short-term solutions such as price control, government subsidies, public employment and regulation of contractualization, government must institute a shift in industrial, agricultural, economic and social policies.”