PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will sign an Executive Order that will put an end to endo or 555 but will not totally prohibit contractualization, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said on Tuesday.
He said Duterte’s campaign promise was to eliminate 555 or end of contract or “endo” but not contractualization.
“I want to make it clear: The promise of the President is to stop 555 or endo, and not contractualization,” Roque said.
“There are two types of contractualization and endo. This endo will terminate a worker after five months so the employer has reason not to regularize its worker. A worker needs at least six months to become a regular worker.”
Roque said the supposed signing of the EO last Monday was delayed after the labor groups, the government, employers and other stakeholders did not agree on the proposed EO draft.
Malacañang had earlier admitted that the EO was not enough to totally prohibit the unlawful contractualization in the country, saying the pending EO on contractualization had “limitations.”
Former senior deputy executive secretary and now Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has said the total ban itself is something that the Palace cannot do by executive order.
“Only Congress could end all forms of illegal contractualization by drafting a proposed measure that would amend the country’s Labor Code,” Guevarra said.
“If you want something like a total ban on contractualization, you need a law to repeal or amend that particular provision of the Labor Code.
“An executive order is meant only to supplement or to give the implementing details of what the law provides. But it cannot add or subtract, or substantially alter what the law provides. That’s really more for Congress to do. So I hope that you will understand the limitations on an executive order,” Guevarra said.
The labor groups have been insisting that Duterte sign the proposed labor-draft EO that would favor workers.
“Only the President can issue a pro-worker EO if he wants to in order to realize his campaign promise,” Partido Manggagawa chairman Renato Magtubo said.
“Now is the time for the President to show his political will by signing the labor-drafted EO.”
