DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 November) – Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte backed moves in the Sangguniang Panlungsod or City Council to remove the business permit requirement for delivery riders here.
“Dili man pod na nimo sila puwede singlon og kanang bug-at kay pila ra po’y ginansiya ana ug kapoy baya na nga trabaho (You cannot just demand the riders to pay high because they only earn little, and their jobs are really tiring),” Duterte said in his podcast “Basta Dabawenyo” livestreamed in his CM Baste Duterte Facebook page Sunday evening.
“Mahitabo na gyud na, og sakto dili na na ma-reverse (It will happen, and it will not be reversed),” Duterte added, referring to the removal of the delivery riders’ business permit requirement.
Delivery riders here have been demanding exemption from the business permit requisite – which will cost them between P1,720 and P5,200 annually, depending on the type of motorcycles they own – because they are not business persons.
Duterte said the city council is working on the legalities to amend the City Ordinance 0291-17 or the Davao City Revenue Code, the reason for the delays.
The revenue code was passed in 2017 but amended in 2021 by former city councilor Danilo “Danny” Dayanghirang Sr. through City Ordinance 0612-21, which mandated the delivery riders to apply for business permit, among other changes.
Meanwhile, former city councilor Pamela Librado, who was Duterte’s guest during the podcast, said that there are Supreme Court decisions that can be used as basis for the local government to remove the business permit requirement for delivery riders.
In their earlier interviews with the media, the United Davao Delivery Riders Association (UDDRA) credited Librado, who is seeking a city council seat in the next elections, for helping them during their legal battles against FoodPanda Philippines.
Last year, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) issued a ruling recognizing seven illegally removed Davao City-based riders of online food delivery service provider Foodpanda Philippines as regular employees.
UDDRA’s position paper dated November 5 mentioned Supreme Court decisions, such as Dilangkin et.al. vs. Lazada (2022) and Fuentes et al. vs. Lazada E-Services Philippines, Inc. (2022), as basis for their plea to exempt them from getting business permits.
In the case of Ditiangkin et al., the Supreme Court ruled that the Lazada delivery riders are indeed regular employees and ordered their reinstatement with full back wages, after they were illegally removed from the company.
In Fuentes et al., the Supreme Court ruled that the two Lazada delivery riders who were initially removed were indeed regular employees and had the right to receive back wages and benefits, because Lazada directly hired the petitioners via an independent contractor agreement, paid them P1,200 daily, had the authority to dismiss them, and mandated their work methods.
Meanwhile, Duterte took a swipe at mayoralty candidates who he said are “using the delivery riders to push their agenda and claiming that the city government ‘seems to ignore the riders’ pleas.”‘
“The city council has been doing something about this, we just need a legal basis first,” Duterte said in Bisaya.
The delivery riders’ pleas have become a topic of concern for mayoralty candidates Karlo Nograles (who was former first district representative and later Cabinet Secretary and Civil Service Commission chairperson) and religious leader Rodolfo Cubos.
Both said that if they will win, they will prioritize the exemption of delivery riders from applying business permits.
Nograles and Cubos will be going against long-time mayor and former president Rodrigo Duterte. Incumbent Mayor Duterte will run as vice mayor in next year’s election. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
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