A MILITANT lawmaker on Tuesday lamented that reforms President Rodrigo Duterte promised since the electoral campaign remained intangible and inedible for the country’s poor sectors.
Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao cited Duterte’s promise to end labor contractualization or “endo” (end-of-contract scheme), genuine agrarian reform and rural development, a stop to rice importation, end the housing problem of urban poor and ending destructive mining.
“The President promised better lives for the poor and this earned him a broad support from the poor, but it totally relies on the actual fulfillment, that the poor could concretely benefit from,” Casilao told a news conference.
Casilao said Duterte, who will deliver his second State of the Nation Address in Congress next week, failed to end contractualization of labor.
He said the President even promised within a week of his presidency, but after more than a year, his Cabinet could only deliver the Department Order l 174 issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello, that allegedly tolerated contractualization and even promoted the monopoly of big business over the labor market.
“Naturally, with the labor scheme still operating, no significant wage increase was felt by the Filipino workers,” Casilao said.
Casilao also noted the supposed pro-farmer program of the Agriculture department, such as free irrigation, had thus far not been implemented and legislative measures for its enactment were still pending at the committee level.
In addition, genuine agrarian reform, encoined by “free distribution of land to farmers,” an expansive clamor of farmers across the country, had yet to be realized.
House Bill 555 Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill proposing for such is pending at the committee.
He also denounced a government-to-private sector policy on rice importation, which allowed the private sector to import rice, beyond the authority of the National Food Authority.
“The government’s recent measures for countryside concerns are ranging from indecisive to detrimental to farmers, especially that they are now being subjected to massive militarization and aerial bombings,” Casilao said.
“While the President may feel assured of recent [high] approval rating [in surveys], the people of Mindanao registered their disapproval, presumably due to his martial law declaration,” Casilao added.
