MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker yesterday urged President Duterte to fulfill his campaign promise to workers by signing a new version of the security of tenure bill that he earlier vetoed.
“Mr. President, keep your promise of regularizing contractual employees by banning the notorious endo (end of contract) practice of many employers,” Rep. Raymond Mendoza of party-list Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said in a news conference.
TUCP is a large confederation of conservative labor organizations.
Mendoza said workers believed then-Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte during his campaign for presidency in 2016, where he repeatedly said he would outlaw the endo practice.
“He was the only candidate who made that promise despite the possibility of incurring the ire of businessmen-employers,” he said.
It got more disappointing when he vetoed “an already watered-down security of tenure bill,” Mendoza said. “He failed our workers.”
Mendoza also urged foreign chambers of business and industry to stay away from the controversy surrounding the bill.