Akbayan party-list Rep. Tom Villarin on Sunday appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte not to give in to the pressure of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines to veto a “very important piece” of legislation for the welfare of the female workers.
“ECOP is lobbying directly to the executive branch for the President not to sign the Expanded Maternity Leave Law,” Villarin said.
“For me, that would be highly irregular. The legislative [branch] went through public hearings and consultations. Any issues of the employees should have been brought up there,” he told the Manila Standard.
He said the bill’s advocates have received information from “insiders in Malacañang” that ECOP was trying to block the bill’s enactment.
Villarin said the Expanded Maternity Leave Law is a “social justice measure for women that is long overdue in the past 26 years.”
“Hopefully, the President will sign it. There is no constitutional basis for its rejection,” he added.