Arroyo has good news to labor sector on May 1

Expect no wage increase yet but the labor sector can still expect good news from President Gloria Arroyo on May 1, according to Vice President Noli de Castro recently.

"Abangan n''yo ang announcement ni president sa Labor Day, talagang matutuwa kayo," de Castro said during the inauguration of the Naga-Toledo road project in Poog, Toledo City two days ago but hinted that it would be on non-wage benefits.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion has confirmed that the "Labor Day package" that the Arroyo administration had prepared for Labor Day does not contain any wage adjustment.

Brion said that wage hike is not yet possible at this time and the regional wage boards are still tackling the wage petitions the labor groups had filed earlier.

The government still believed that the wage boards are the best venue for workers to get wage increases, said Brion.

Two weeks ago, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines filed at the wages boards in the Metro Manila, Davao, and Cebu for a P75 across-the-board daily wage increase. It had also demanded for other benefits such as lower housing loan rates and income tax exemptions for lowly paid workers.

In the past, Malacañang granted non-wage benefits such as skills training, labor productivity seminars and new policies on occupational health.

In his visit to Cebu lately, de Castro said he and Mrs. Arroyo have been working together to provide housing for the workers and the poorest of the poor so that they could have houses they could call their own.

The Arroyo administration is targeting between more than 200,000 houses or over a million houses for poor Filipinos yearly until 2010. Pag-ibig premiums were already lowered from as high as 16 percent to only 6 percent to make housing loans more affordable, de Castro said.

The DOLE meanwhile declared May 1, Tuesday, regular non-working holiday that entitles an employee, who report for work on this day, a 100 percent additional pay to their regular daily rate.

The Philippine National Police, for its part, would do away with rites for the day''s observation and put instead all headquarters nationwide on heightened alert status, starting April 30, Monday.

PNP Operations director Wilfredo Garcia signed a memorandum, dated April 26, warning the police force to anticipate simultaneous mass actions and protests from militant groups, as they had been doing similarly in the past.

In Cebu City, the City Police had already stepped up security measures to ensure that peace and order shall be maintained during the Labor Day observance.

Personnel of the civil disturbance management unit have been deployed already to check on threats of disturbance in all areas in the city, said the City Police.

All police precincts, detachments, and patrol bases of the Security Service Group were also ordered to tackle problems on peace and order in their respective areas of responsibility, such as terrorism, lawless violence, civil disturbances, and crises incidents. - Wenna A. Berondo and Flor Z. Perolina/RAE