Monday,May27,2Ol9 I
will not allow
Senate
mandingof SOTbilt
inbiaarn'
BY BU,ICH FERNANDEZ
t "lt
!@butchBM
ENAIE Presid entVicente Sotto
II1 allayed concerns bY a iitterY
laborsectorthatlast-ditchlob-
bying in Congtess could still derailbi-
cameral eff orts andmangle the f inal
version of the so-called End of Endo
reform embodied in the SecuritY of
Teirure (SOT) bill.
' "Wewillnotallowit,"theSenate
President told the BusINEssMlR-
Ron over the weekend
TheSenate President gave the as-
surance a mid aPPrehensions bY la-
bor groups thatlobbyists are work-
ine on their House counterParts to
r""t", do-r, ot approvalofthe
"u"rtlegislation.
awaited remedial
soTbill...
CoNTINUED FRoM Al
Principally sponsored 8y Sen. Joel
Villanueva, chairman of the Senate
Committee on Labor, Employmenr
and Human Resources Development,
the "end-bf Eh do" em bod ied in Senate
Bill 1826 provided measures to,,uphold
the constitutionally guaranteed right
to security oftenurel
The billaffi rmsthe ban on"labor-on_
ly"contracting,clarifying,,ambiguities,,
in existing laws that Villanueva said,
was used by enterprising employers
to 9o around the rules,
Villanueva lamented that workers
long "suffered from the evils of Endo,,
that he denounced as,,a practice that
corrupts the dignity of labor,"
He added that the remedial leq-
islation was crafted to "give all work-
ers peace of mind when it comes
to their employment." The Senate
last week passed on third and final
r {p,al1 )p{q6,/
says Soffo
is b€stthatthe
Hous€iust adoPt our
version. Ihen theie
willbe no ptoblemt
at all."-sotto
"Tt is best that the House just
adoot ou rversion," the Senate Iead-
er said, adding, "then there willbe
no ptoblems, at a11."
ihe finalversion earlier approved
bv lhe Senate defined securitY of
tenure for workers in a move to ef-
fectively avert abuses in the practice
of il1ega1 contractualization.
sBE "soT BILL," ,A2
readingthe SOTbill,which the House had
approved lastyeal. ,
Sotto's proposal for the Houje to
adopt the Senate version may yet be
heeded, in order to avoid protracted
bicameral conference committee de_
bates, given that in her letterto Sotto
before Congress resumed sessions:last.
May 20, Speaker Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo listed those bills she deemed
should be given priority in the last
session days of the lTth Congress.
She said that the House may consider
adopting the Senate version ofsome
bills in order to hasten the legislative
process.
ln a statement last Thursday,
Trade Union Congress of the phil-
ippines Vice President Louie Cor-
ral said they are wary of a possible
intervention by the Department of
Finante in a bid to derail the SOT.
Hetaid workers also expect similar
moves bythe Employers Confederation
ofthe Philippines (Ecop) and the Joint
Foreign Chambers of Commerce (JFCC).