The sad thing here is that if 500 to 600 thousand workers were regularized, this is only a drop in the bucket because there are nine million contractual workers in the country.

Since the campaign against contractualization or end-of-contract (endo) scheme started in 2016, the Department of Labor and Employment had regularized over 580,539 workers in the country, DoLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.

During a year-end press briefing, Bello disclosed that the rising number of workers became regular workers through strengthened efforts to pursue the goals of the labor department.

President Rodrigo Duterte has pledged to implement steps that will reduce if not totally stop the circumvention of the Labor Code through endo in which employment is based on temporary contracts of usually a six-month duration.

In effect, over 219,141 establishments covering around 13.69 million workers were also inspected as the government seeks to curb the practice.

However, The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is urging DoLE to prove the figures.

“Although we welcome the good news. Good news is good news for workers but there has to be some verification,” TUCP Vice President Louie Corral said.

“The sad thing here is that if 500 to 600 thousand workers were regularized, this is only a drop in the bucket because there are nine million contractual workers in the country,” he added.

Other than addressing the contractualization scheme in the country, TUCP is also calling the attention of DoLE to address other labor issues particularly endo.

“This is something that we hope DoLE will address not through the regularization through voluntary means by employers but through stricter and more rigorous enforcement of EO 51 and DO 174 and 183,” Corral said.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo also commended DoLE for its efforts in generating jobs.

“Thank you for being the reason why we have a thriving workforce. The Duterte administration is extremely grateful for the work you do each day,” he said.

He said bringing a comfortable life for all mainly through decent jobs is the goal of Mr. Duterte. A sound workplace for the Filipino worker form part of this over-reaching goal.

Panelo noted that since the start of the Duterte administration in 2016, the numbers in the labor force have drastically changed.

Employment rate remains at a peak of around 94.5 percent while unemployment was at a reasonable 5.5 percent in April.

“This is largely because several local and international investors are deciding to invest their money in businesses which, in turn, generate jobs,” he said.

Meanwhile, underemployment rate went down from 17.2 percent in July 2018 to 13.9 percent in July 2019.

“Efforts on the anti-endo campaign led to the regularization of more Filipinos in the first three years of the Duterte presidency,” Panelo said.