Senate bets back TUCP wage hike proposal

MANILA, Philippines — Running for senator under the UniTeam Alliance, Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda said she is supporting the wage hike petition of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) filed before the National Capital Region-Regional Wages and Productivity Board.

“Filipinos are reeling from big time oil price hikes. With rising food prices due to increasing transport and input costs, current wages are insufficient to meet the daily needs of millions of Filipino families,” she said.

Legarda appealed to the wage boards to immediately convene and conduct the necessary consultations with affected sectors. “They must act quickly and decisively before it’s too late,” she stressed.

Former senator and Team Unity senatorial bet Jinggoy Estrada yesterday said he supports the wage hike petition filed by the TUCP.

In a statement, Estrada said the wage increase is necessary since most Filipinos are suffering from the almost weekly hikes in oil prices that has led to the spike in the price of food and other basic necessities.

Earlier, Estrada called on the country’s regional wage boards to buckle down to work and immediately release their recommended wage hike as ordered by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.

As former chairman of the Senate labor committee, Estrada said the National Capital Region-Regional Wages and Productivity Board must study and act with dispatch on TUCP’s proposal to add P470 to the daily wage of workers in Metro Manila.

“We badly need the collective experience and wisdom of the wage boards on how to strike a balance between the interests of workers and their employers who pay their salaries,” he explained.

Estrada said there’s no doubt that higher wages are needed to keep pace with the increasing cost of living, but it must be in an amount that employers can afford. “It requires a delicate balancing act. If wages are increased too high, we run the risk of companies laying off workers or worse, closing shop,” he stressed.

Estrada said 99.5 percent of the registered businesses in the country are micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. As of November 2021, almost 10 percent of small businesses have remained closed. “We must also understand the situation of our businessmen. Many of them have closed shop and are unlikely to reopen due to lack of capital and massive losses during two years under the pandemic,” he said.

Estrada has long advocated for the improvement of the welfare of wage earners. He said the practice of setting minimum wages is absurd since it has consistently failed to keep up with inflation.

He said he plans to introduce reforms to the Wage Rationalization Act, which placed the responsibility of setting the minimum wage with the 17 regional wage boards. “The national government should have more flexibility in adjusting the basic pay of ordinary workers, especially in times of crises or emergencies,” he said.

Double increase

Vice presidential candidate and Senate President Vicente Sotto III is pushing for an almost double increase in the daily minimum wage of private sector workers due to the continuous surge of prices of petroleum products.

In an interview during their campaign sortie in Tuguegarao City, Sotto said the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila should be pegged at P1,000 so that workers can cope with the price increases of basic goods triggered by the rise in oil prices. 

Sotto made the pitch after the TUCP filed a formal petition on Monday before the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board for a P470 increase in the minimum wage of workers in the National Capital Region.

The current minimum wage in Metro Manila is P537. The National Wage and Productivity Commission’s records showed Metro Manila’s minimum wage was last increased on Oct. 30, 2018.  

Sotto said a P1,000 daily minimum wage for Metro Manila workers can help workers adjust to the adverse impact of oil price increases brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Presidential candidate and Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the minimum wage will be best decided upon by the regional wage boards due to the peculiarity in the cost of living per region.

“We must not look at it in terms of real wages. Let us look at the living wage per region because it matters how much wage increase is needed,” Lacson said in Filipino.

Fuel subsidy delay

Vice presidential aspirant Sen. Francis Pangilinan questioned the delay of the Department of Agriculture’s release of “Pantawid Palaot” or fuel subsidy to fishers and farmers as the biggest price increase in oil products took effect yesterday.

“We have needed help for a long time, but nothing is coming,” Pangilinan said in Filipino.

The senator said many small fishermen are finding it hard to go out to sea because they have to shell out extra money for fuel.

In a recent visit to a fishing community in Pangasinan, Pangilinan said fishers lamented they fall deep in debt from expenses for fuel and nets to be able to fish.

“When a big ship passes by, our nets are ruined, we have to buy a new one,” one fisherman narrated in Filipino.

The fishermen also said that there are days when the catch is few, enough only to feed the family. Nothing is left to be sold in the market where they could get a little cash for other expenses.

“This is the sad reality of our fishermen who are short of income and still in debt. It’s like working to pay off the debt,” Pangilinan said.

“No matter how hard they work, if they are not given support, nothing will happen,” he added.

This was echoed by the Pangasinan fishermen who said, “Support us fishermen, don’t neglect us. If there are no fishermen, there would be nothing to eat. We can’t eat rocks.”

Top 1,000  companies

House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta said overworked and underpaid workers are more than entitled to an increase in minimum wage, but the country’s top 1,000 companies are more capable of implementing it.

“Perhaps we can start with our top 1,000 corporations because they are inherently and empirically more in a position to grant the increase whatever is necessitated by law,” he added.  

“For quite some time and for the longest time now, they have already been the beneficiary of low labor in this country, and they have the responsibility to their workers,” Marcoleta told the hosts of The Chiefs on TV5 aired over Cignal cable TV.

“But the wage increase will not apply to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) because they have been hit the hardest in the onslaught of the pandemic. Maybe 70 percent or more of our companies are MSMEs,” he stressed.

House Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera and Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas also joined the fray and supported calls for an increase in the daily minimum wage following the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“We fully support Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III’s directive to all regional wage boards to expedite the review of minimum wages to help workers and their families weather the current oil crisis,” Herrera, of party-list Bagong Henerasyon, said.

 “It’s time to raise the minimum wages. We need to provide hardworking Filipinos a lifeline as they suffer the dual shock of COVID-19 and oil price hikes,” she said, adding the crisis is a “compelling ground for the wage boards to recommend adjustments in the minimum wages.”

Vargas, for his part, called for a “whole-of-government, whole-of-nation” approach in dealing with the impact of rising fuel and food prices on vulnerable sectors in the midst of the pandemic.

 He said government agencies, representatives from civil society, sectoral groups and the private sector should immediately meet to formulate an “integrated policy solution” to what the congressman describes as an impending national and global crisis. – Paolo Romero, Cecilia Suerte Felipe, Delon Porcalla

 “The social and economic impact of the war in Ukraine is being felt worldwide. It could lead to another great disruption, on a scale that could be similar to the pandemic. In the midst of uncertainty, it is imperative that our government and other sectors work as one in securing better protection for vulnerable segments of our society,” the chairman of the House committee on social services added. –  Cecilia Suerte Felipe, Delon Porcalla