Proposed police clearance for DOLE transactions has chilling effect on workers — solon

The Philippine National Police’s (PNP) proposal to require a national police clearance for transactions with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will have a chilling effect on the "free and unfettered" exercise of workers rights, TUCP (Trade Union Congress of the Philippines) party-list Representative Raymond Mendoza said Friday. 

In a statement, Mendoza described the police's suggestion as an "unwarranted infringement of the constitutional rights of workers to self-organization."

"On its face, the request of the PNP to require those dealing with the DOLE to submit national police clearances superimposes the heavy-handed police state security apparatus on our labor relations system," Mendoza said.

"It is violative of our right to organize and unduly expands the discretion of the State in intervening in the exercise of our constitutional rights," he added.

Further, Mendoza is urging DOLE to reject the PNP's proposal. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has said the suggestion is already under consideration.

In a letter to Bello dated March 10, 2021, PNP chief Police General Debold Sinas said the PNP is hoping that the DOLE will support the National Police Clearance System (NPCS) “by making the NPC as one of your requirements in your various transactions.”

It was not specified what types of transactions would require the national police clearance.

For Mendoza, the said requirement would only intimidate and scare off workers from exercising their rights, noting that it may be an "insurmountable hurdle" in registering a union.

"It will emasculate the exercise of labor rights and will make a mockery of the labor justice system," Mendoza said.

The Associated Labor Unions also denounced the proposal, saying it is an added burden to workers and will threaten industrial peace in the country. — Anna Felicia Bajo/RSJ, GMA News