Tulfo, Robin want to support anti-endo measure, says Risa

First-term senators Robin Padilla and Raffy Tulfo have expressed support for the Security of Tenure Bill or the measure seeking to stop labor-only contracting, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros has said.

In the latest episode of “The Howie Severino Podcast”, Hontiveros vowed to push for the anti-endo measure, the universal pension for senior citizens, the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) bill, and measures catering to the welfare of workers under the gig economy.

“I’m sorry that we ran out of time in the 18th Congress for the Linga Para Kay Lolo at Lola Bill. This is the universal social pensions for senior citizens bill,” Hontiveros said.

“In fact, I already started requesting senators-elect Raffy Tulfo and Robin Padilla who said and whom it was said, that they want to support the Security of Tenure Bill,” she added.

“Endo” or “end of contract” is an employment term where companies hire workers for less than six months to avoid their regularization as mandated by the Labor Code.

Duterte when he ran for president in 2016 promised to stop endo but in 2019 vetoed the Security of Tenure and End of Endo Bill which Congress passed.

Then presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said the version submitted by Congress unduly broadened the scope and definition of prohibited labor-only contracting and proscribed forms of contractualization which are not particularly unfavorable to employees involved.

The Security of Tenure bill eliminates subcontracting of labor, limits job contracting to licensed and specialized services, and treats project and seasonal employees as regular employees.

Workers’ rights are both included in the campaign platforms of Tulfo and Padilla in the recently concluded polls.

Padilla, for his part, said he would support the Anti-endo bill while Tulfo vowed to push for the passage of measures catering to workers’ issues if elected into the Senate.

Hontiveros to support civil union of same-sex couples

Meanwhile, Hontiveros expressed willingness to back the passage of legislation that would allow the civil union of same-sex couples “if the SOGIE bill is passed into law”.

She clarified such a mandate is not included in the highly-debated measure that would impose the same rights the “cisgender” or the heterosexuals enjoy as the members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The passage of that bill into law would have changed nothing nor made anything worst for people of our SOGIE or cishet people,” Hontiveros said.

“Plus, the SOGIE Equality Law would include no new or special rights. Nothing that is feared by those who are so strongly against it up to now. It would simply say that stigma and discrimination based on SOGIE is prohibited and punishable by law,” she added.

Willing to work with anyone

As the lone opposition senator to win in the 2022 elections, Hontiveros said she could work with any senator who shared a similar advocacy in terms of a particular bill or issue.

She said there was a culture in the Senate in which senators could collaborate with any colleague.

"That's why I was able to pass more than 20 laws under the current administration," Hontiveros said.

"Because I've been willing and I remain willing to work with practically any senator who shares similar advocacy in terms of a particular bill or whatnot on hand,” she added.

“And that's also why my first priority these days is to form a minority as the only opposition senator to form a minority as an essential part of the Senate, as an essential part of the broader opposition outside the Senate at lampas pa sa oposisyon (beyond the opposition),” Hontiveros said.

Hontiveros bared she was in talks with Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III and two other legislators for a possible alliance as the Senate minority.

Pimentel earlier disclosed Hontiveros agreed to elect him as the bloc’s next leader. —NB, GMA News