Endo (end of contract) and big business

By Jose B. Maroma Jr.

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bello, who wants to become Senator, has announced with ill-disguised vanity and epal fashion that he will ask the President to certify as urgent another anti-Endo (end of contract) bill, the previous version of which was vetoed by the President.

Chances are it will pass as we approach another national elections. The bill will go through the motions of a certified bill, calendared with priority, straight to third reading, backroom horse-trading, Congressmen grandstanding with impassioned pleas for labor benefits. Yet, I doubt if workers will get the end product they want. The biggest roadblock is big business, which is also the biggest contributor to campaign funds.

Many things can happen in these days of double speak. They can kill the bill at the finish line, the way the President did when he vetoed a previous version, citing certain “objectionable” provisions inimical to employers. They can pass a watered-down bill. They can sneak in tax parks hidden behind fine prints to compensate employers for expanded overheads. Worse, and this may be the bigger anomaly, they can mangle the bill after being signed into law with onerous IRR’s (Implementing Rules and Regulations) The smart guys drafting the IRR’s can actually distort the law with a deceptive IRR based on deliberately crafted nebulous provisions of a statute. Also, the implementation may be deferred or staggered, or conditioned on availability of funds.

I am not easily impressed by the altruistic claims of social responsibility of big business in undertaking joint ventures where the government doesn’t spend a centavo. For example, in the case of the International Airport in Bulacan, San Miguel Corporation will not recover its investments from terminal fees, landing rights, stall rentals, toll fees, aircraft servicing and maintenance, in-flight catering, shuttle service, hangar and warehouse leasing, duty-free stores, baggage handling etc. The windfall earnings will come from casinos, hotels, housing and real estate, commercial buildings, amusement centers, theme parks, call centers, giant shopping malls, sports complexes and many others. Even the massive mangrove planting, ostensibly undertaken to help small fishpond operators, can be the support industry for a future fish canning industry.  In another project, Megaworld Iloilo donated prime property for a convention center. It was neither philanthropy nor social conscience. It was smart business sense.

And now, back to Endo. We know we won’t get a free lunch. It’s still a matter of you scratching my back and me scratching yours. Meanwhile, Secretary Bello can set aside production of campaign tarpaulins proclaiming himself as the “champion” of anti-Endo. He might be upstaged by Senator Bong Go who, after secretly cooking deals with big business, will announce he had finally “persuaded” the President. In the murky depths of politics, “big fish eats small fish, small fish eats mud.”

 

The author is a retired civil engineer from Cabatuan, Iloilo. He likes to spend his time reading and writing on the burning issues of the day.