Duterte’s reasons are pure hogwash, an affront to workers: labor group

labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) on Monday rebuked statements made by President Rodrigo Duterte on why he vetoed the Security of Tenure Bill despite certifying it as urgent last year.

They say his reasons were “pure hogwash and an affront to workers from whom he owed his regime’s much vaunted economic growth”.

The militants said the president was noticeably toeing the worn out arguments used by employers since time immemorial whenever labor pushed for reforms. “With his open espousal of the vested interests of capitalists, both local and foreign, he has made it only crystal clear to all where his true allegiance lies”.

Duterte reasoned after his aerial inspection of earthquake-hit Batanes that the bill should have also balanced the needs business owners by providing “security of capital” and protecting employers from lazy and stupid workers.

BMP argued that, “Under present laws, most specially under his regime, workers are in no place to abuse their employers. There is nothing to protect employers from if their employees are stripped of all political and economic rights and are always at the mercy of their employers up to the point that they have to endure below minimum wages, no security of tenure and lacking in mandatory benefits just to make a living”.

They added that companies have sufficient mechanisms under its rules and regulations notwithstanding the six month probationary period to address underperforming and low IQ workers as the president feared.

“There is no need for “security of capital” in a legislation that only seeks to redress the gross exploitation that subjected millions of Filipinos to abject poverty. This is an overkill for all our laws and regulations are already for the “security of capital,” said Ka Leody de Guzman, chair of BMP.

He adds that, “Duterte is merely feinting to appear as a neutral and objective arbiter when he has not moved an inch to accomplish his electoral promise. He differs not from his predecessors. His veto speaks volumes of his true colors and no amount of propaganda and antics can outdo his self-exposure”.

The BMP is calling for the total abolition of all trilateral employment schemes to end the scourge of contractualization. They say their demand is uncompromisable.

They also announced that “all gloves are off” and will respond to Duterte’s non-fulfillment of his promise with more protest actions and labor strikes to assert their right to regular jobs.(PR)