Comments on endo, traffic

An official of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines sent some comments on our column’s take on the government’s move to ban all forms of contract labor, which was published last Oct. 30. Please read on.

“We are on the same page as your column today (Oct. 30).

“Banning all forms of contract employment is economic suicide for the Philippines.

“Endo or 5-5-5 under the 1974 labor code, and amended under former President Corazon Aquino’s freedom constitution, is illegal. It was resorted to by employers to avoid regularization of employees after the mandated probationary period of six months.

“Contractualization is not an English word. It was coined by the KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno) to denigrate all forms of legitimate contract employment.

“Outsourcing, home sourcing, seasonal, fixed period employment scheme are legal, efficient, moral, a global phenomenon, and generate employment. The authorized service contractors are catalysts in employing, training, and deploying new graduates, unskilled, inexperienced, and job applicants who do not have access to companies looking for workers.

“Labor unions want to ban all forms of contract because recruiting contract employees is difficult as they are always on the move. As regulars under a lockout agreement, all employees are automatically members of labor unions.

“There are 17,000 registered labor unions, plus two illegal Communist-inspired and very radical and noisy unions.

“Altogether, the total membership to these unions stand at 500,000 or 1.2 percent of the 42 million in the workforce.

“It is also said that some union leaders are deeply religious or ‘maka-dues’.”

No left turn

Another reader, Darryl Modelo, has a suggestion about easing traffic in the East Bank area in Cainta. Simple solutions may do wonders for our commuters and motorists who have to endure long hours in traffic due to the spate of new road projects. Here’s Darryl’s idea:

“May I refer to you to this traffic concern that has remained unresolved for some time now. I hope that through your column, our voice can be heard and our feedback reaches the appropriate government authorities. 

“I am Darryl M. Modelo, a professional, working in the logistics industry. I live with my wife in Greenwoods Executive Village, Cainta. While I work in Parañaque, to go home I normally take NAIAX to Bicutan onwards to lower Bicutan and then via C6.

“While the government has done a good job of putting up the C6 highway, the sad part is at the end of this road, which is at the intersection located at the East Bank, after the Barkadahan Bridge (new), the traffic situation has remained quite bad. 

“I think it is not so much the volume of traffic, but the flow: it is constricted. As a concerned citizen, may I suggest that a no-left-turn scheme is implemented so that the traffic flow is not impeded. Traffic flows on both directions at any given time remain continuous.

“It will inconvenience some, but we have to take the lesser evil or bite the bullet with the no-left-turn scheme rather than ending up being stuck in traffic for a long period of time not because of the poor road conditions which the new C6 highway has solved, but the lack of a systematic and practical approach to handling traffic. 

“A modified traffic scheme can be implemented by the local government depending on the traffic volume at certain hours of the day and on certain days of the week, that is, a no-left-turn rule is implemented at certain hours of the day.

“Why not give it a try and am quite positive – just like the many other motorists that I have talked to feel – that with a determined resolve from the traffic management unit of the local government, the traffic situation would ease up if not be fully resolved.” 

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Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.