MANILA — While President Rodrigo Duterte will not be signing an executive order (EO) on the issue of contractualization, he will be certifying as urgent a bill on security of tenure which is now pending in the Senate.
This was stated by DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III, noting that the certification of the pending bill at the Senate was the consensus during a meeting last week with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
“We had a meeting last with Executive Secretary Medialdea, and after going through three proposed EOs to be signed by the President, the consensus was that instead of the president signing the EO on the issue of contractualization, he will instead certify as a priority bill, the bill that is now pending in the Senate on security of tenure,” he said in a press conference on Thursday.
“As I was saying the consensus of instead of an EO being signed by the President, he will instead issue a certification as a priority bill a bill pending in the Senate on the issue of security of tenure, actually that bill is mirrored in one of the proposed EOs that supposed to be signed by the president,” Bello added.
When asked if there is a timeline as to the passage of the measure, Bello said, “Since it will be certified urgent means it will be given priority by Senate, it was approved at the House of Representatives, it is now for the Senate, I think Senate is just waiting for some inputs from the Executive branch of the government.”
The DOLE chief noted the EOs have similar features with that of Department Order No. 174, which sets guidelines on labor contracting and subcontracting. (PNA)
