Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. delivers the president’s report on behalf of the late Donald G. Dee during the ECOP annual meeting and election. In photo (from left to right): Fe Palileo, Chair of ECOP commitee on election; Alberto Quimpo, ECOP corporate secretary; Edgardo G. Lacson, ECOP chairman; and Lucila Tarriela, ECOP treasurer.
This year’s President’s Report is special as it will serve as the valedictory report of our late President, Mr. Donald G. Dee, who lost his battle against cancer on 1 December 2018.
Though he lost this particular battle, we believe he was a victor in many areas of his life, as a father, as a husband, as a brother, as a friend, as a colleague, and as a mentor.
The business community lost a passionate champion and leader, a stalwart in the industry, a staunch advocate of and for employers.
Although he was representing the management sector, he also had a genuine concern to the general welfare of the workers who he considers as indispensable partners to growth. He was committed to pursuing programs and reforms that would strike a balance between the welfare of business and investment, on one hand, and the protection of workers, their working conditions, and their living conditions, on the other. He had a vision not just for the various organizations he led, but for his country, as well.
Mr. Dee served his first term as ECOP President in 2000-2003. He immediately embraced the principles of social compliance, reproductive health, and social dialogue long before they became buzzwords and made them the core of his advocacies. These issues have defined what ECOP has now become.
On his second term, which commenced in 2016, he envisioned an organization that is more proactive, more member-driven, and more service-oriented. He established programs that are geared towards assisting smaller companies, those which do not have enough resources and access to legal and professional support.
His resolve to help improve the working and living conditions of the working class propelled the organization to initiate the institutionalization and strengthening of the bipartite relations between employers and trade unions. He also pushed for government reforms that would benefit the workers.
The ECOP Secretariat remembers him as one who elicits the best performance from the staff, ensures that their professional development is given the highest priority, and always looks for opportunities to enhance their perks and benefits.
The ECOP Board of Governors will remember him as the captain that never abandoned his ship up to the very last moment of his life. Despite his illness, he was still the one steering the wheel, ensuring that the organization didn’t lose its direction.
With this, the ECOP Board of Governors, together with the Secretariat as well as ECOP’s various committees, vows to continue what Mr. Dee has started, bearing in mind his vision of national growth and development.
Report Proper:
At the beginning of the year, the late ECOP President Donald G. Dee and the Board of Governors, with the administrative and technical support of the ECOP Secretariat, developed an ECOP Strategic Framework 2018-2023.
The framework was developed to both guide the work of the ECOP leadership, for implementation by the Secretariat, over the medium-term and serves as a means by which ECOP can make itself more relevant, enable its members to engage with the organization more effectively, and be more pro-active in the various forums where it now actively represents its constituents.
The work of ECOP for this particular year has been anchored laying down the infrastructure and support systems necessary to implement the strategic framework.
The implementation of this framework is made possible through our corporate partners whom we are very grateful for.
At this point, allow me to enumerate the milestones of ECOP for this year:
- ECOP remains to be the Chair of the ASEAN Confederation of Employers. This year, we hosted the ACE Regional Conference after a long hiatus, back-to-back with our National Conference of Employers. We have lined up some activities for 2019 before our term ends.
- We continue to represent employers in policy and decision-making through the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council and other tripartite government bodies.
- While we uphold the spirit of tripartism, we initiated the institutionalization of a bipartite dialogue mechanism with our partner trade unions. Through a project, we are also strengthening the enterprise-level bipartite relations.
- For the year, ECOP was able to address fifty-nine (59) legislative measures in both Houses of Congress, fourteen (14) from the Senate and forty-five (45) from the House of Representatives, through submission of position papers and representation before the Committee panel. Of the 59 bills, six (6) were endorsed by ECOP; thirteen (13) were endorsed with qualifications, while the rest, forty (40) were opposed or objected to.
- We have also intensified our campaign to promote compliance, responsible business conduct, and corporate social responsibility.
- We have introduced new services in the form of certificate courses to equip members with technical skills.
- We have also re-designed our website this year to optimize the engagement of our members.
- We have intensified our campaign for membership development in order to recruit more members, retain existing members, and revive inactive members.
- We also continue to help strengthen and capacitate our Chapters so they may become self-sustaining and a more effective conduit of ECOP in the regions.
- We have also forged new partnerships with international development partners who helped establish programs that will benefit not just employers but also the workers and the community.
Looking forward, as the only umbrella organization of employers in the Philippines, ECOP will endeavor to maintain the preeminent status it has earned as the accredited employers organization not only at the national level but also at the international level. ECOP will continue to carry out its mandate of not just protecting the welfare of business on labor, employment, and social policy issues but also ensuring that employers, whether large or small, are good corporate citizens compliant with labor and other standards and cognizant of ethical and voluntary practices. As part of its very own CSR, ECOP will help its constituency, especially the smaller ones, in coping and catching up with the latest trends and emerging practices in the world of work taking into account both enterprise and human resources development.
President’s Report 2018
[embeddoc url=”https://ecop.org.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/presidents-report-1218.pdf” download=”none”]
