Political will to double salaries of AFP and PNP but not to stop contractualization?

There is Filipino Saying, "Kapag gusto may paraan, kung ayaw may dahilan".

In the recent law of President Rodrigo Duterte which doubled the salaries of the soldiers and police, there were those who lauded his action of showing political will to compensate the supposed sacrifices of the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

In this Facebook era, many "liked" Duterte's oft-repeated campaign promise of stopping contractualization. But now that he has become President, Duterte he and his doublespeaking spokesman Harry Roque have now claimed that ending contractualization is "complicated." So where is this government's so-called political will?

Though Duterte promised to stop contractualization through legislation, he never made this a priority bill in the almost two years he became president. His several dialogues with the private sector labor groups since last year with the promise to sign the worker's own alternative executive order has been for naught. After a year's delay, several alibis, and even an announcement on April 16 that he will not anymore sign an order, Duterte's eventually issued a meaningless Executive Order 51 on Labor Day. The workers and unionists' version resolutely stated a stop to all forms of contractualization. Yet Malacañang and the capitalists version of EO 51 will still allow "legal contractualization" through the use of service contractors. Duterte has gone back to square one when he said that Congress must first amend the Labor Code.

It would not be "complicated" if this government takes to heart the concept of social justice and for once take the side of the working class. It is already alarming that there are a significant number of non-regular workers in government similar to the private sector. 1 of every 3 (720,000 of 2.3 million government employees) are non-regular and even increasing. He denounced the government for continuing contractualization of government employees under CSC-DBM-COA Joint Circular No.1 which will implement "institutional contract of service" or the similar use of service contractors or providers instead of regularizing the current contractual workers. He also reiterated their support for HB 7415 of the Makabayan bloc which will prohibit contractualization and entitle security of tenure and eligibility for non-regular workers in government.

Ferdinand Gaite

President

Courage PID