MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday admitted he is having a hard time balancing the demands of the labor sector and businesses when it comes to the issue of contractualization or "endo."

The President said a compromise between labor groups and employers must be reached in order to break the impasse, adding there are too many Filipinos vying for the limited number of local jobs, which is why the demand for employees in certain businesses is low.

“There are few businesses to absorb the human resource, kaya they want some radical changes,” Duterte said in a speech at the inauguration of a shooting range in Davao City.

“I don’t think that I can really give them all kasi hindi naman natin mapilit ‘yung mga kapitalista na… kung walang pera o ayaw nila o tamad. Don’t make it hard for them to run the business the way they like it because that’s their money. So, something of a compromise must be… may be acceptable to everybody.”

Labor groups have been asking Duterte to issue an executive order (EO) that would ban all forms of contractual employment in the country. Malacañang earlier said the President is seeking more time to issue the EO.

Labor groups said companies have avoided giving benefits and other incentives, usually given to regular employees, to their contractual employees by terminating them before their 6-month probationary period ends. This practice is called “endo”, which is short for “end of contract.”

The Department of Labor and Employment issued Dept. Order 174 last year, but labor groups were not satisfied with it as it still supposedly allows certain forms of contractual employment.

• Labor dept issues new rules to fight 'endo'

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said last year it is impossible to implement a total ban on contractualization, as the law allows some exceptions.

• Total ban on 'contractualization' not possible right now: Bello