Get rid of Reds in Cabinet, businessmen ask Duterte

A BUSINESS leader called on President Duterte to weed out the communists from his administration for being too fixated on spreading their ideology rather than doing their duties, such as creating jobs.

Donald  Dee, chair emeritus of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop), said in a briefing in Malacañang: “There are people like that that we should… maybe a hundred days is not enough for them to gel,  but some people will never gel and I hope the President will get rid of them.”

Although he did not name anyone, Dee appeared to be alluding to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and his undersecretary, Joel Maglunsod, a militant labor leader and former Anakpawis party-list representative, both of whom expressed support for a P125 hike in the minimium daily wage.

“I’m very critical here of the individual who comes and says, ‘we will do a P125 across the board increase.’ You know, and then he follows by saying, ‘this is my personal opinion,’” Dee said.

As senior government officials, Dee said they had lost the right to make this kind of public statements.

Dee said the officials had not even done their math on the implications of a P125 wage hike for 7.7 million minimum wage earners. Dee said it would amount to roughly P1 billion in additional costs per day for businessmen.

Dee said the P125 hike would triple inflation to 6.5 percent, “and leftist proponents do not care if tricycle drivers and other self-employed Filpinos would suffer the burden.”

Dee said that the leftist ideologues were in the Cabinet not to promote the President’s policy of job creation but “in order to implement their own philosophical stuff.”

While businessmen opposed the wage hike, Dee said business groups were ready to police their own ranks to stop “endo” or contractualization where employees are hired on five-month contracts to avoid paying regular wages and perks.

“Anybody who is practicing endo will be removed from our membership list. This we promise the President,” said Dee, referring to Ecop and the Management Association of the Philippines.