Duterte orders crackdown on firms engaged in labor-only contracting

April 20, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a crackdown against companies engaged in labor-only contracting.

In a press briefing on Friday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte directed the Department of Labor and Employment to submit to his office within 30 days a comprehensive report and list of companies engaged in labor-only contracting.

"We reiterate that labor-only contracting is already prohibited by the existing Labor Code and among others, one in this is of a labor-only contracting entity or a ‘cabo’ is that it does not have substantial capital; it only exists to circumvent the security of tenure of its workers," he said.

Roque said also prohibited is 5-5-5, which means after five months of employment, the worker is being removed to avoid his regularization.

He said the inventory of companies was ordered "to crackdown on them because the promise (of the President) was to end 5-5-5 endo."

"There will really be 'tokhang' on companies. They will be checked one by one. This is a tokhang against cabo. Let me call it now, 'Tokhang Laban sa Cabo (Tokhang Against the Cabo)," he said.

Duterte ordered the crackdown after the statement of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III that the president would no longer issue an executive order against contractualization.

Bello has said to really end contractualization, Congress should amend the Labor Code.

Roque denied there was a backlash on the decision not to issue an EO against contractualization.

"Where is the backlash? There is no backlash," he said, reiterating that what Duterte has promised was to end 5-5-5.

"That's why the president wants to make sure that there's no more 5-5-5," he said.

Asked if Duterte would certify as urgent the passage of the bill on security of tenure pending in Congress before the May 1 Labor Day, Roque could not give any commitment.

"I cannot say with certainty, but we will see what happens," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS