MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte remains committed to ending abusive labor practices and hopes Congress will "rectify" provisions of the vetoed security of tenure bill, Malacañang said on Thursday.

Duterte in 2016 promised to stop "endo" or "end of contract", a practice in which some employers end contracts on the fifth month and renew it for 5 months at a time to avoid granting workers regular employee status. But he vetoed an anti-endo bill in 2019.

"The Chief Executive explained that the version submitted by Congress 'unduly broadens the scope and definition of prohibited labor-only contracting, effectively proscribing forms of contractualization that are not particularly unfavorable to employees involved,'" said Palace acting spokesman Martin Andanar.

• Palace on Duterte veto: Security of tenure bill might cause jobs decline

"The President hopes that Congress would rectify the vetoed provisions as he remains committed to eradicating all forms of abusive employment practices and protecting the workers' right to security of tenure," he said in a statement.

His remark came after vice presidential candidate and Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III criticized Duterte this week for failing to sign the measure.

• Villanueva disappointed at Duterte's non-approval of anti-endo bill

Andanar said despite vetoing the bill, Duterte issued an executive order that "prohibits contracting or subcontracting undertaken to circumvent the worker’s right to security of tenure, self-organization and collective bargaining, and peaceful concerted activities."

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III last July urged Duterte to certify a new version of the endo bill as urgent, after an official claimed it was no longer a priority during the President's last year in office.

But Bello noted that the endo bill pending in Congress was not "substantially different" from the measure that Duterte vetoed in 2019.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv