During his campaign for the 2016 presidential election, one of Rodrigo Duterte's promises was the phasing out of contractualization (locally known as "endo", derived from "end of contract") and improvement to labor policies in the Philippines. Upon his election, he appointed Silvestre Bello III as Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, who considers making all companies put at least 80% of all employees under contract as per the president's orders. By the end of 2016, around 32,000 workers have been regularized. Going into 2017, Duterte and Bello aimed for a new permanent policy that would end labor-only contractualization by the end of February, but Bello wounded up not signing it. Instead he decided first for dialogue between the president and labor groups in order to get feedback. Eventually President Duterte met with the labor groups as Bello drafts a new Department Order that would stop labor contractualization. However, by March 16, Bello signs Department Order 174 which sets stricter guidelines on contractualization but doesn't immediately illegalize it. Duterte however continued his stand against contractualization, promising to sign an Executive Order against it. However, terrorist attacks perpetuated by the Maute group in Marawi City ended up postponing the signing. A rally was organized by labor groups on March 15, 2018, in protest against the president's delay of the EO. Eventually on May 1, Duterte signed Executive Order No. 51 which prohibits illegal contracting and subcontracting, although labor groups criticized the president for his actions since the one signed was not the draft agreed upon with them.