Copying one of President Duterte's campaign promises, presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said he will address "endo" or the system of contractualization in the country if and when he gets elected to Malacañang in May.
During his recent meeting with two labor-focused party-list groups, Marcos Jr. said ensuring better labor conditions will be part of his priority programs. This came as he discussed with them various issues hounding the labor sector and bared his plans to address them.
Marcos told officials of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and Associated Labor Unions (ALU) that all agencies dealing with the labor sector should be streamlined.
"I will have to put the lay out in detail because the issue has become so involved. Maraming dapat ayusin, structurally maraming dapat ayusin. Dapat i-streamline ang mga agencies, dahil masyado nang marami , ang mga workers natin, nalilito kung saan sila dapat lumapit (There are a lot to fix structurally. We need to streamline the agencies because there are already a lot of offices. Our workers are now confused where to go)," Marcos Jr.'s camp quoted him as saying on Wednesday, Feb. 23.
Marcos Jr. also said he plans to prioritize the bill on security of tenure, which aims to amend the current Labor Code in a bid to protect the workers' rights by prohibiting labor-only contracting in the private sector, or contractualization.
This was the same act that President Duterte vetoed in 2019 because it "unduly broaden" the scope of labor-only contracting as well as banned forms that became unfavorable to employees.
When he was still campaigning for the presidency in 2016, then-Davao City Mayor Duterte promised to end the practice of "endo".
Aware of Duterte’s reason for his veto, Marcos Jr. said he would amend the concerned provisions to ensure that a bill protecting the workers would be passed into law.
"Kailangang ayusin natin dahil ang ating mga kababayan, napipilitang magtrabaho overseas dahil mababa at hindi maayos ang labor conditions dito (We need to fix this because our fellow citizens have no choice but to work overseas because of unfair labor conditions here)," he said.
Marcos Jr.'s camp said the presidential aspirant also supports the creation of a separate department for migrant workers.
The Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) standard-bearer also said there is a need to streamline agencies that will only focus on local workers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
This came after TUCP Party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza aired corcerns of OFWs, which include having to process numerous requirements before leaving the Philippines, on top of their usual problems abroad.
While he agreed to address such problems, Marcos Jr. said the end goal for him is to make overseas employment a mere option for Filipinos.