REPOST: D.O. 30 in Breach of DU30’s Campaign Promise, Workers’ Reiterate Call to End all Forms of Contractualization -- NAGKAISA

President Duterte made these pledge before the Filipino people when he was campaigning for the Presidency:

"The moment I assume the Presidency, contractualization will stop. They have to stop it."

"What I will do is call the Speaker and the Senate President after their elections and everybody, may constitution na doon, internal, then I will call on mostly the majority, mga Liberal congressmen, you pass this bill immediately. Senate, sabihin ko, I need it first week of my administration."

And he stood firm and stubborn in pushing for this platform upon assumption to office, up to the point of threatening big companies to close their plants if they don't comply.

"You will not just lose money, you will also lose pants. No tolerance ako dito, ito ang pangako ko sa tao. Stop contractualization. It will not do good to our country. Huwag na ninyong hintayin na mahuli kayo ni Sec. Bello. Kapag nalaman ko, I will simply close your plant and I can find a thousand reason to do it.

He even threatened to shot businessmen who practice endo or contractualization.

"I am warning you, you choose: stop contractualization or I will kill you. You know why… I am the President. I am here. I have immunity."

Many people may have been accustomed to President Duterte's use of hyperbole in driving a point. But for workers, the epidemic of contractualization has really gone out of proportion – a plague that warrants absolute containment in order to save the present and future generation of workers, the women and the youth.

Zero tolerance, therefore, is the correct and strategic policy change to pursue.

Now, is the impending issuance of Department Order No. 30 (DO30) in line with the early pronouncements of the President and in accordance with workers' unanimous demand to end all forms of contractualization? NO!

DO30 falls short of what has been promised by DU30. It will only perpetuate contractualization. No wonder that the employers and the manning agencies are celebrating it!

Workers do not deserve this odious holiday and year-ender present from the government.

In digest, the new DO simply simulated in new fashion the framework of recognizing trilateral employment relations. It perpetuates the failed logic of regulation which, during the last several decades, has allowed and legitimized the business of labor contractualization done in many ways and in different forms.

This has to stop. The perpetuation of trilateral employment relation, which DO30 continues to recognize in the form of job/service contracting of specialized, project and seasonal jobs, is more of a system upgrade rather than a change in the policy itself. Hence, we denounce it as UNACCEPTABLE.

Ayaw namin ng mga middleman, sa anyo ng mga agency at cooperative, na ginagawang negosyo ang pangangalakal ng aming lakas paggawa. Nais namin ay DIRECT HIRING at ipagbawal ang FIXED-TERM employment.

Thus, if the President was really true to his campaign promise and to the commitment he made to end contractualization upon his assumption to office, we call on him to set aside DO30 for reasons cited above, notwithstanding its failure to secure acceptance from labor groups as well as endorsement from the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC).

We request that the President hold a personal dialogue with labor leaders to exchange ideas on how to really end endo. And in the meantime, in the absence of a new DO or a new law, the President should likewise consider issuing an Executive Order that expressly prohibits all forms of contractualization, or certify as an urgent administration measure the enactment of HB 4444 (Mendoza, TUCP PL) that seeks to prohibit and criminalize contractualization.

Matatapos na ang taong 2016 sa susunod na dalawang araw. Ang kontraktwalisasyon kailan pa ba magwawakas?

 

http://www.nagkaisa.org/2016/12/do30-in-breach-of-du30s-campaign.html

Youth groups hit Duterte on ‘false promise’ of free education

Youth groups hit Duterte on ‘false promise’ of free education

By: Ed Margareth Barahan - @inquirerdotnet

INQUIRER.net / 03:10 PM December 28, 2016

Student groups on Wednesday criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for his false promise of free education following his recent statements which reversed previous pronouncements warranting free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs).
“Limiting free tuition for ‘poor and qualified’ students puts undue burden on the part of students in exercising their right to education,” Rara Ada of Sanlakas Youth said in a statement.
“Distorting the recently passed law ensuring free tuition in SUCs through its implementing rules betrays the promise of free tertiary education flaunted by the Duterte administration and its allies in the Congress,” she added.

Ada also said this burdened only underprivileged students who wished to pursue their tertiary education in SUCs because they would still have to prove they were “poor enough” to be eligible for free tuition.

“What is being flaunted as a progressive step in ensuring tertiary education as a right to be accessed by those who choose to is really just a deceptive mechanism in justifying the increase of tuition and other fees, as those who were considered unqualified for free tuition are deemed rich enough to cope with higher fees,” she said.
“If the President is serious in his promise of delivering change, he must do so by prioritizing the SixWillFix Bill as urgent, ensuring that free quality education will not suffer from arbitrary changes, nor be subjected to annual competition with other parts of the national budget,” Zaira Baniaga of Kaisa-UP said.
The SixWillFix is a legislation that aims to ensure the automatic appropriation of six percent of the country’s gross national product to the budget for education. The bill aims to ensure free education in all levels without having its quality and accessibility suffer, and it also targets fair wages for teachers and workers and quality facilities for students.
The said bill has been lobbied in both houses of the Congress.
“The right to education in all levels by all citizens is not up for debate,” Baniaga said.
“If the President believes in investing in the country’s future, he must not be among those who stand in the way of free education,” she added.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/857414/youth-groups-hit-duterte-on-false-promise-of-free-education#ixzz4U9QTDGHE

REPOST: Unacceptable!: Labor groups thumb down proposed new DO on endo

From: http://partidongmanggagawa2001.blogspot.com/2016/12/unacceptable-labor-groups-thumb-down.html

It’s dead on arrival (DA) for the proposed new Department Order (DO) on endo of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as far as labor groups are concerned.

 

The draft DO, the country’s major labor groups under the labor coalition Nagkaisa declared, will not lead to the ultimate end but rather  to the further strengthening of the legal standing of contractualization in the country.

 

“DOLE intends to adopt what all labor groups unanimously rejected during the labor summit – the ‘win-win solution’ of DTI.  This could signal the end of President Duterte’s campaign promise to end endo,” declared Danny Edralin, Vice-Chair for the Private Sector of the Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa or SENTRO. 

 

For Partido Manggagawa (PM):  “The draft new DO may seem to restrict labor contracting to seasonal and project employment but these employment schemes may however be extended to cover jobs, work or services which are directly related to the business operations of a company. As such, contractualization of labor would still proliferate in the guise of describing the job, work or service as seasonal or project employment,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

The working draft of the new DO was presented during the Tripartite Executive Committee (TEC) of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) last week.  Said DO recognizes trilateral employment relationship which has long been opposed by organized labor as it undermines workers’ rights to security of tenure, to organize and collectively bargain.

 

For TUCP, the proposed DO is unacceptable.  “It is a mere rehash of what current laws already provide. It gives nothing new to workers. Change requires a DO that further restricts contractualization while a new law is needed to end contractualization,” said Luis Corral, Executive Director of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

 

‘Win-win’, for Nagkaisa, is DTI doublespeak roundly rejected as ‘lose-lose’ by workers. Thus, it is pushing for the passage of HB 4444 (Rep. Raymond Mendoza. TUCP Partylist) which prohibits contractualization and calls on Sec. Bello to endorse it for certification by President Duterte as an urgent Presidential measure.  HB 4444 prohibits all fixed term contracts and criminalizes violations.

 

The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) on the other hand wanted to directly challenge President Duterte to completely prohibit endo by means of an executive order.

 

“The new draft DO is a mere attempt to rehash DO 18-A with sophisticated words to continue justifying contractualization under the Duterte regime. Thus, BMP now directly challenges President Duterte to immediately issue an Executive Order to strictly prohibit all forms of contractualization by urgently signing a draft EO which BMP crafted and submitted to the Office of the President last November 10, 2016 for instant Presidential executive action,” said its President Leody De Guzman.

 

Even public sector unions are disappointed on the way the end endo agenda of the Duterte administration regresses.

 

“The proposed DO officialises contractualization and bastardizes Duterte’s campaign platform to end contractualization,” said Annie Geron, President of the Public Services Independent Labor Confederation (PSLINK).

 

The government is being accused by labor groups as the single biggest practitioner of contractualization in the forms of job order (JO) and contracts of service (CS).

December 19, 2016

 

http://partidongmanggagawa2001.blogspot.com/2016/12/unacceptable-labor-groups-thumb-down.html

New socialist group formed: The Socialist Circle

There is a new socialist grouping in the Philippines today, called The Socialist Circle. It is not (yet) an organization in any sense. The group describes itself for now as something "committed to creating spaces for exploring, debating, and advancing socialist, feminist and radically democratic alternative(s) to the present social order." The group held a well-attended gathering this Sunday.

The new group provides yet another venue to accommodate the growing number of individuals in the Philippines who are getting more interested in socialist/Leftist politics that is not tied to the old ideologically rigid parties, especially the Communist Party of the Philippines, which hardly provides a forum on socialism for non-members.

Earlier this year, the Manila Jacobin Reading Group was also formed.

The SC's page is here.

REPOST: 'P334M from only 13 donors funded Duterte’s presidency'

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) published a nice report that sheds light on the class background of the Duterte presidency. The findings won't actually surprise you. But it's important to get substantial information on the interests of Duterte's cronies in the fields of mining, agriculture, real estate, procurement, and others.

Some of the names of rich people that appeared belong in the Forbes list, which was previously also mentioned in this blog.

Digong Duterte: Tuta Ni Marcos