House ready for Duterte’s 3rd SONA

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is ready for President Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) tomorrow, officials of the chamber said over the weekend.

Two days before the annual presidential ritual, House secretary general Cesar Pareja retracted his statement and yesterday said acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio will attend the SONA.

He apologized to Carpio, the principal candidate for the post vacated by ousted chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno but who has expressed lack of interest in it.

“All security measures inside and outside of Congress are also now in place,” Pareja said.

He said the House expects about 3,000 guests, including foreign and local dignitaries, to grace the occasion, as well as hundreds of local and foreign media from different organizations to cover the event.

He said security personnel of the House, the Senate and the Presidential Security Group (PSG) are implementing coordinated security measures.

“Only organic and authorized personnel are allowed to enter the House premises,” he added.

Pareja said security officers are monitoring the planned mass actions of several pro- and anti-administration groups in the vicinity of the Batasan complex in Quezon City.

“It is better to be prepared for any eventuality and nothing happens than to be unprepared and something unexpected happens,” he said.

The President is expected to sign the proposed Bangsamoro Organic Law, which the House and the Senate will approve tomorrow morning, before his SONA in the afternoon.

The Batasan is now on lockdown. Security is so tight that guards are closely checking the SONA identification card of any person trying to enter the compound.

The House media staff told media practitioners yesterday that, “Per advice from the PSG, those who have been issued SONA 2018 media IDs are requested not to post such IDs on Facebook to prevent people from producing fake SONA media IDs.”

When asked why the request was directed only to the media, the staff said similar appeals were sent to holders of thousands of House-issued SONA ID cards.

Guests, VIPs and government officials, and their aides were only given invitations – which could be easier to fabricate – and not issued photo-bearing IDs.

“Everything is in place. I talked with the regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and he told me more than 7,000 policemen will be deployed,” Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said.

NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar is the overall security task force commander while Chief Superintendent Joselito Esquivel Jr. is the ground commander in Quezon City.

“I think with the strength that we have, we are confident it will be peaceful,” he said.

Like in previous SONAs, Albayalde expects the number of demonstrators from cause-oriented groups to range from 7,000 to 10,000.

He urged protesters not to stir violence and to be wary of infiltrators who might create trouble. “We are asking for their cooperation so there will be no violence,” said Albayalde.

Meanwhile, President Duterte will no longer meet with protesters after delivering his SONA, his special assistant Christopher Go said. Last year, Duterte went out of the Batasan complex to speak before protesters. “That will not happen,” Go told reporters in Filipino at Camp Crame.

He said the President was aware of the unflattering welcome he might receive from militant protesters, especially the burning of effigies bearing his likeness. 

Sought for comment, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary-general Renato Reyes said he sees no problem if Duterte snubs them.

“It’s best for all concerned. Things have changed greatly since the last SONA and the issues confronting us put us diametrically opposed to the regime,” he said in a statement.

Reyes promised to air their grievances peacefully on various issues such as human rights violations, sovereignty, moves to amend the 1987 Constitution and the negative impact of the tax reform law.

“We do not see any untoward incident happening since we have been coordinating with them for several days now,” he said, referring to the police leadership.

Albayalde said they have a contingency plan in case Duterte changes his mind and meets with the protesters. “We are prepared for anything,” he said.

Go said Duterte’s SONA can be over in 35 minutes, but he declined to give details of the speech. “But it can take longer if he decides to say something more from the heart,” he said.

As Duterte prepares for his third SONA, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said it is renewing its commitment to reforms promised by the administration.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said his department is “steadfast in according full protection to workers by ensuring job security pursuant to the directive of the president.”

“We have taken initiatives to pursue effective implementation of the right to security of tenure and eliminate practices that circumvent the law prohibiting illegal contractual arrangements,” he said.

Regularization of workers

DOLE data show that since August 2016, a total of 321,964 workers have been regularized – 202,779 of them through voluntary regularization and 119,185 through inspection.

Bello added that DOLE has aimed to regularize 300,000 employees this year, 243,418 of whom were already regularized during the first half of the year.

To “guarantee just, simplified, and expeditious resolution” of labor issues at the workplace, DOLE has also promoted conciliation-mediation as an effective alternative dispute resolution mechanism in providing labor justice. 

Through this scheme, a total of P32.1 billion in monetary award was given to 513,576 workers.

 “We have established 18 One-Stop Service Centers for overseas Filipino workers across the country integrating all frontline services of key government agencies for OFWs,” he said.

Bello added they have also approved a P1,150  across the board increase in the monthly pension of Employees’ Compensation (EC) permanent disability pensioners and qualified beneficiaries in the public sector.

For Federation of Free Workers (FFW), however, President Duterte deserves an “NI” or failing grade for his failure to address several issues besetting workers.

In a phone interview, FFW president Sonny Matula said they gave the President “NI” or needs improvement because of the latter’s many unfulfilled promises.

 “There are many promises that the President made, especially during the campaign, and most of them are not yet fulfilled.  So in that regard, it’s ‘NI’ or he needs improvement,” he pointed out.

One of his undelivered promises was to end short-term employment schemes like contractualization as well as end-of-contract.

Matula added that under the Duterte administration, there had been no significant nationwide wage hikes, despite the ballooning prices of commodities and services in the country. – With Emmanuel Tupas, Sheila Crisostomo