Sensing a growing social upheaval, President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday signed an Executive Order ending contractualization. While the signing of the EO seemed like a fitting gift on the occasion of Labor Day yesterday, workers were still unhappy about the presidential action. A wide segment of labor see the President’s signing as more of an appeasement to defuse a gathering storm of workers that was massed at Mendiola.
President Duterte, however, was not in Manila but in Cebu where he opted to mark Labor Day before a less hostile crowd. In Manila, a splinter group of workers marched in front of the Bureau of Immigration in Intramuros to protest the deportation of Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox. Sister Fox is appealing the deportation—punishment for allegedly participating in domestic politics. She denied the allegation as she claimed she only attended events that called for work among the unemployed and food for the hungry. But as it becomes criminal to criticize this administration, she was brought in and detained at the BI offices for a day.
Why is Labor still unhappy with the Duterte EO? Leaders of the working masses said the EO does not totally eliminate “endo” or contractualization. The workers who carried and burned effigies of President Duterte claimed the EO still allowed contractualization in certain areas such as seasonal jobs and businesses that have a shelf life or are not established for the long run.
Donald Dee, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, warned that a total ban on contractualization might deter foreign investors from coming into the country. In turn, this could depress the economy. Workers, on the other hand, claimed that it is the foreign currency remittances that overseas Filipino workers send home that prop up what could be a sagging economy.
The more vocal of the protesting workers chanted “end endo!” even as they claim that the President signed the EO not because of his love for labor. Nor was it a labor of love. The Kilusang Mayo Uno said he signed the EO because he was afraid that protest marchers which numbered in the hundreds of thousands might storm the Palace gates.
A job fair organized by government and the private sector, meanwhile, saw hundreds of applicants for work in Canada and Japan. Amid this uneasy state on the labor front, there are reports of differences between Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III. There are talks Bello is on the way out. But the man is doing the best he can, so why ease him out?
Adding to the unemployment problem are the thousands or workers displaced in the closure of the island resort of Boracay. The government has ordered Boracay’s lockdown to foreign and domestic tourists for six months to clean up the beach and its waters, President Duterte’s colorful and apt description of Boracay as a “cesspool” went viral worldwide. So it has become Boracay to “burak”—the Filipino word for the slimy mud one dredges up from the bottom of dirty water.
More dirt related to tourism. The Commission on Audit is questioning the payment of P60 million for the PTV Channel 4 program “Bitag” of Ben Tulfo. The COA said it had not received a memorandum of agreement or a contract between PTV 4 and the Department of Tourism.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo said she is not aware of the deal. She is the sister of the well-known media commentators Ramon, Irwin, and Ben Tulfo. The COA found it hard to believe that the Tourism Secretary is not aware of such a big transaction between her department and her brothers.
No comment from us. Ramon Tulfo is a friend and we will let this case be investigated by the Palace as Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said it would be.
While at it, the COA might as well also look into why the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. favor a certain media outlet for its advertisements.