DOLE should protect the workers' health and safety

How many workers died in the Aleson ferry fiasco? How many workers perished in the landfill collapse in Cebu City? How many workers died in Liloan chicken processing during the height of the typhoons? How many construction workers remain unprotected in many construction sites? Are we left only to count the dead and government officials calling for press conferences to cover up their palpable incompetence, negligence and ineptitude?

Are public officials so neglectful or corrupt so as to close their eyes amidst the multiple deaths due to work-related accidents? Are city engineers not inspecting fire hazards in work establishments? Are Bureau of Fire Protection officials and manpower only focused on selling fire extinguishers, instead of making sure that all buildings and infrastructures are safe for the workers and for the public in general? Are DOLE inspectors only focused on wages and labor contracting, instead of minding the workers' health, safety and welfare? Should DOLE officials not give impetus to safety and health instead of running after agencies and contractors only?

If the iconic Secretary and Senator Blas F Ople were alive today, some officials and personnel would definitely get a tongue-lashing. If Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Ninoy Aquino were still with us nowadays, there would immediately be urgent senate investigations, not just in aid of legislation, but preparatory to the commencement of prosecution and conviction, aside from dismissal from the service. If Senators Ernesto Herrera and Congressman Alberto Veloso of Leyte were still around, they would immediately call for an immediate, uncompromising and serious inquiry as to why these accidents were not prevented and why workers were not protected, as mandated by law. What are the two Tulfo senators doing? The people expect them to investigate.

Book Four of the Labor Code, on workers' health, safety and welfare, was amended by Republic Act 11058, an act strengthening compliance with occupational safety and health standards and providing penalties for violations thereof, approved by former president Duterte on August 17, 2018, or almost six years ago. Secretary Silvestre Bello III issued DOLE Department Order 198, implementing RA 11058, on December 6, 2018 and took effect on January 25, 2019, after its publication. Both the law and the DOLE order mandate inspections of all establishments. Hundreds of inspectors were hired precisely to implement these.

Employers who violate the stringent safety and health rules are bound to pay huge amounts of penalties ranging from twenty thousand pesos per day for failing to provide safety orientations and instructions up to fifty thousand pesos a day for failing to provide personal protective equipment to their workers, like hard hats, safety shoes, masks and gloves. These are good on paper. But these can also be another source of corruption, just like the fire extinguishers in the case of some wayward firemen. Many inspections end in compromises and the workers are never fully informed on the terms and conditions of settlements.

Under Article 128 of the Labor Code, the DOLE secretary is vested with visitorial and enforcement powers, which are delegated to the regional directors, and the latter further delegated to the inspectors. They can enter into the premises of all establishments, have access to all relevant HR and finance documents, including payrolls, vouchers, ledgers and proof of remittances to the SSS, PhilHealth and HDMF. They can investigate any fact, interrogate any employee and go around to discover health and safety violations. Under proper grounds, the DOLE can even issue a work stoppage order without prior hearing, can issue compliance orders and writs of executions.

The DOLE has all the powers and the wherewithal to prevent work-related accidents. It is even a criminal offense to impede, obstruct or delay the inspections that they conduct. They have enough personnel, a huge budget, and all the powers and prerogatives vested by law and regulations, I am very familiar with all these. My first job in DOLE in 1975 was being an inspector. I know Secretary Benny Laguesma. He is an honest and highly competent official appointed by both presidents Erap and BBM. I also know most of the regional directors including Atty Roy Buenafe of Region 7. They are all career and honest men.

But the problems are down the line. It is always the underlings and the subalterns that constitute the weakest links. DOLE is a great agency. I spent more than twenty years there. But the DOLE officials should watch the men and women down the line. Our noblest objectives can be sabotaged by the abuses and negligence of the underlings.