Rep. Baguilat on House probe on De Lima /Endo

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

IFUGAO Rep.  and contender for minority floor leadership Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. questioned the logic and propriety of House Resolution No. 105 calling for an investigation “in aid of legislation” of the accountability of now Senator Leila de Lima for the proliferation of drugs in the New Bilibid Prison during de Lima’s term as Secretary of Justice.

“In the same way that Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said no new legislation could come out of an investigation into the rampant extrajudicial killings that have cost hundreds of innocent lives, how can any new law come out of an investigation looking for accountability of past officials?” Baguilat asked.

“This proposed investigation in fact reeks of harassment and various Constitutional violations as it seeks to spend people’s money on a witch hunt, forgetting that the role of Congress is primarily to make laws, not look for criminal evidence, which is an Executive function,” Baguilat added in a statement e-mailed to the Northern Philippine Times.

            HR 105 filed by Alvarez and 10 other Congressmen (although Reps. Michael John Duavit and Romeo Acop appear to have not signed the resolution) calls for the House of Representatives to “direct the appropriate committee to immediately conducta (sic) comprehensive investigation on the proliferation of drug syndicates in the NBP, including the involvement and accountability of the authorities mandated to exercise control and supervision over the national penitentiary, under the leadership of then Secretary of the Department of Justice Leila M. De Lima, and such other heads of law enforcement agencies tasked with implementing law enforcement policies.”

“Certainly, Congress should look into inefficiencies in government service as part of its control of the national budget, but this resolution obviously targets Senator de Lima while making the unjustified conclusion that the drug problem in NBP started during her stint in the Department of Justice,” Baguilat said.

            “The Congressmen who filed the resolution failed to note that it was de Lima who ordered the crackdown on various abuses in NBP,” Baguilat added.

            “A sincere investigation into the alleged proliferation of drugs in Philippine jails would try to search for its roots, not target specific officials; surely my colleagues have not forgotten that as early as 2009, during the term of then President Arroyo, questionable activities have been reported at the NBP, not the least of which was the construction of houses and the conduct of various businesses by then-inmate Romeo Jalosjos,” Baguilat said.  

Baguilat also questioned the timing of the proposed investigation, coming at the heels of an investigation in the Senate, spearheaded by de Lima, into drug-related killings.

            “Obviously the proposed investigation, which singles out Senator de Lima, wants to discredit the ongoing investigation at the Senate on drug-related killings. It is outrageous that the leadership of the House of Representatives would allow this venerable institution to be used as a political weapon,” Baguilat railed.

            Baguilat also noted that Rep. Danilo Suarez, whose election as Minority Floor Leader is being questioned by Baguilat and other Congressmen, signed Alvarez’s resolution. “This only shows that we have a co-opted minority in the House; this is dangerous for democracy and does not bode well for the Filipino people,” Baguilat remarked.

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Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin M. Drilon, who served as labor secretary, urged the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resource and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to think of "out of the box" and “win-win” solutions that will help the administration fulfill its promise of ending contractualization in the workforce.

“The problem on contractualization is an issue that continues to plague this country since the 1970’s. The law clearly prohibits labor-only contracting yet it still persists because it is a symptom to a bigger problem,” Drilon said.

            At the committee’s hearing on Wednesday regarding the contractualization issue, Drilon explained that the perennial practice of labor-only contracting “is a result of a high labor surplus in the country.”

 “In this situation, there are more people looking for jobs than what the job market can accommodate, hence the widespread practice of illegal labor-only contracting,” Drion said in a statement.

            “The companies tend to take advantage of skilled workers to hire them on a short-term basis and the workers, in the absence of job opportunities, would allow themselves to be exploited,” he added.

 “At present, the law clearly prohibits labor-only contracting. However, in order to realistically solve this problem, we should target the root cause of the problem: insufficient job opportunities,” Drilon said.   

            The former labor secretary urged the committee and the labor sector to think of "out of the box" solutions that encourage companies to hire employees on a regular basis and refrain from engaging in the illegal practice of contractualization.

“We need to exercise creativity, ingenuity and political will to effectively address this issue affecting so many Filipinos," Drilon said.

“We must strike a balance between protecting the rights of workers and generating employment,” Drilon said.

            Drilon said that one feasible proposal is the offering of incentives to companies who will prove to be effective in reducing the number of contractual employees under their payroll. “Let us look into giving companies incentives and assistance to encourage them to regularize their employees,” Drilon said.    

"We have to make the process of eliminating contractualization beneficial to both employer and employee. We have to look for win-win solutions that will help workers and the private sector alike," Drilon said.    

“We must put an end to ‘endo’ not by threatening companies with penalties but by providing incentives,” he said.

Drilon concluded that the Senate should fix the loopholes in the labor laws to provide meaningful protection to the Filipino workers.