2023 Research Briefs

POLICY ISSUE The fishing industry is one of the country’s main economic drivers, with Tuna as one of the Philippines’ top fisheries exports. General Santos City, a 1st class, highly urbanized city, is in Region XII, SOCCSKSARGEN, dubbed the country’s tuna capital. While the industry is vital to the country’s economy, reports show it also continue reading : Exploring Innovative Approaches To Address Labor Exploitation In The Fishery Supply Chain: The Case Of The Tuna Industry In The Philippines

POLICY ISSUE The fishing industry is one of the country’s main economic drivers, with Tuna as one of the Philippines’ top fisheries exports. General Santos City, a 1st class, highly urbanized city, is in Region XII, SOCCSKSARGEN, dubbed the country’s tuna capital. While the industry is vital to the country’s economy, reports show it also continue reading : Exploring Innovative Approaches To Address Labor Exploitation In The Fishery Supply Chain: The Case Of The Tuna Industry In The Philippines

I. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Increasing resilience through a low-carbon economy transition Climate change and environmental degradation have increasingly taken a toll on economies and human lives. According to the United Nations, climate change entails long-term variations in temperature and weather patterns leading to severe droughts and fires, water shortages, floods, rising sea levels, and biodiversity decline. The onslaught of such events negatively impacts employment through the displacement of workers, disruptions to business activities, and damage to infrastructure—threatening the economy, reducing productivity, and destroying jobs (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2022). 

Background

In the Philippines, one of the major thrusts of the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 is pursuing a whole-of-society approach in modernizing agriculture and agribusiness, emphasizing the critical role of the government, private sector, and the civil society in enhancing the efficiency of agriculture production, expanding access to markets and agri-based enterprises, and improving the resilience of agriculture value chains. Notwithstanding this attention, the Philippine agriculture sector continues to be characterized by low productivity, as compared to other ASEAN member states (Baconguis, 2022; Briones et al., 2023). According to a report published by The World Bank (2020, p.57), modernization through innovation and technology is essential to transform the agriculture sector “from a low-productivity, low-income, resource-intensive sector to a dynamic engine of sustainable growth and prosperity.”

POLICY ISSUE

In 1987, through Executive Order No. 226, the country signified its intent to accelerate economic nationalism by encouraging investments and adopting cohesive fiscal incentives for the private sector. One of the many existing incentives in the Philippines is “The Special Economic Zone Act of 1995” or Republic Act (R.A.) 7916. The law aspires to develop some regions of the nation into “highly developed agro-industrial, industrial, commercial, tourist, banking, investment, and financial centers.” Section 23 of R.A. 7916 provides fiscal incentives and Income Tax Holidays (1TH) of four (4) to eight (8) years, depending on the location of the Special Economic Zones or Ecozones. Non-fiscal incentives are also provided to investors, such as special non-immigrant visas with multiple entry privileges for foreign investors and immediate family members and employment of foreign nationals (Section 10). Meanwhile, Section 30 allows for a long-term land lease of up to 75 years. Furthermore, “firms (also known as locators) can choose to transfer in these ecozones regardless of market orientation” (Senate of the Philippines, 2008). They are also given “certain items of deductions in arriving at their gross income base” (National Tax Research Center [NTRC], 1999). These incentives demonstrate how much the government values ecozones’ role in the Philippines’ increasing economic nationalism.

POLICY ISSUE

The gig economy is the “segment of the service economy based on flexible, temporary, or freelance jobs, often involving connecting clients and customers through an online platform” (Investopedia.com, n.d.). It is a “business model where workers rely on a digital platform to be put in contact with clients to provide their freelance services”  NortonRoseFulbright.com, 2020). According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), one important component of the gig economy are digital labor platforms which includes both webbased platforms, where work is outsourced through an open call to a geographically dispersed crowd (“crowdwork”), and location-based applications  apps) which allocate work to individuals in a specific geographical area, typically to perform local, service-oriented tasks such as driving, running errands, or cleaning houses. The ILO’s 2021 World Employment and Social Outlook Report identifies the Philippines among the top suppliers of online labor (pp. 52-54) with US$16 million inflow of trade (volume of work) (pp. 43-45). This year, the Philippines was ranked as the 7th fastest-growing remote hubs in the world, based on the Nomad list, a platform where 10,000+ members log where they are working. Various estimates place the number of workers in the gig economy in the Philippines at 1.5 million (Schnabel, 2018; Payoneer, 2021; Hermoso, 2021; Abadilla, 2022).

POLICY ISSUE

The labor justice in the Philippines is embedded both in Presidential Decree No. 442 or the Labor Code of the Philippines and the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Article XIII, Section 3 of the Constitution stipulated the role of the State in protecting the workers and their rights at work. Whereas Articles 128 of the Labor Code of the Philippines underscore the visitorial and enforcement power of the Secretary of Labor and Employment and his/her duly authorized representative. Moreover, Article 129 of the Labor Code of the Philippines provided the Secretary of Labor and Employment or his/her duly authorized hearing officer with the power to hear and decide any matter involving the recovery of wages and other monetary claims. These provisions of the law ensures that the principles of rights at work will be observe at all times. To further strengthen its implementation, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) outlines the policies and guidelines for the country’s labor inspectorate system through Department and Administrative Orders.

POLICY ISSUE

In 2022, the Institute conducted a study entitled “Historical Analysis of DOLE Regulations on Contracting and Subcontracting,” as part of its 2022 Research Agenda. The study provided a historical context to the development of the provisions of the guidelines, including D.O. No. 10-97, D.O. No. 18-02, D.O. No. 18-A-11, and D.O. No. 174-17. Likewise, it examined the recent jurisprudence that tackled controversies involving contracting and subcontracting.

Overview

Employer-employee matching in the labor market has transformed to meet the demands posed by 21st-century innovations and technologies (Autor, 2001). According to Mcdonald et al. (2022), Labor Market Intermediaries are migrating their activities to the digital space, creating Digital Labor Market Intermediaries (DLMIs). Further, the authors recognized the strategic importance of DLMIs in improving the efficiency of the hiring and recruitment process, expanding the reach of job postings, and attracting high-quality talents. However, the authors also raised issues on the data privacy of jobseekers and the possibility of unequal opportunities for the selection of jobseekers due to DLMIs’ algorithmic design.