Top employers test Aquino

Wish list ‘doable’ in first 100 days of next president

Amendments to the Labor Code, eradication of red tape, effective anti-smuggling campaign and improved peace and order are among the issues on a wish list that the business community would present to the new administration.

Speaking before the weekly “Straight to the Point” news forum held at the Tinapayan Festival on Tuesday, the president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) said that members of the business community will meet on the same day and finish a business agenda that they intend to submit to apparent president-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd.

Ed Lacson said that the paper would contain suggestions on issues that are “doable” during the first 100 days of the next administration.

The business agenda “will be submitted to the incoming president, and it is up to him if he would follow it or not,” Lacson added.

According to the Ecop president, it is about time that the government reviewed the Labor Code, a product of the martial-law period (1972 to 1981), because most of the provisions of the code are not applicable anymore to the country’s economic structure at present.

He cited as examples the provision that prohibits labor contracting and the provision that limits working hours for woman laborers, which if enforced strictly today will make the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector violators of the Labor Code.

Elimination of smuggling in the country is also among the main concerns of the business sector because, Lacson said, smuggling discourages individuals and firms that are doing business in the country drives away possible investors.

The eradication of red tape, the Ecop president added, is also key to attracting more investors and making the country competitive with its Asian neighbors.

The Philippines, Lacson said, also needs more infrastructure projects including bridges and farm-to-market roads, which are essential in delivering goods and services and making remote parts of the country more accessible.

He added that the country could take off from the success of the country’s first automated elections held on May 10.

Already, Lacson said, almost 50 percent of business owners in the Philippines are optimistic about the incoming administration.

He clarified, though, that the positive outlook of the business community stems not from Aquino’s becoming the country’s new leader but that the community prizes the fresh mandate given to the apparent president-elect.

Lacson said that the business sector believes that all candidates for president in this month’s computerized balloting were qualified for the highest post in the land.

He added that they would have been as positive regardless of who among the nine standard-bearers won the automated elections.

“We are the partners of the government and we are apolitical. We do not elect a president. We work with the president,” Lacson said. –JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA Reporter, Manila Times