EDITORIAL — Political gimmicks must not be at public expense

According to her advisers, President Arroyo will veto a legislated wage increase which Congress is now trying to pass. The House of Representatives has already passed its own version. The Senate, on the other hand, is earnestly working on what it can do in that direction.

It is only right that the president should put Congress in its proper place concerning the issue of wage increases. For it is preposterous to even imagine that wage increases can ever be legislated.

To allow wage increases to become a matter that is subject to legislation is to open the whole thing to political manipulation and exploitation. There is no quicker recipe to bring the economy down to its knees than to let politicians dictate wage levels.

A Congress that is allowed to assume the power of increasing wages will exploit that power for its own gain without end. There will be as many wage increases as there are political expediencies that need to be satisfied by them.

No doubt, the country's workers will be pleased no end by a Congress that runs amuck with wage increases. But the pleasure will be brief and temporary. Without a strong and realistic foundation upon which to stack up the increases, the economy will collapse.

A legislated wage increase is at best a temporary reprieve. It cannot uplift true purchasing power nor spur credible economic growth. In a moribund economy, it is a dance with the devil. It is a kiss of death.

It is easy to see why Congress is trying this new tack at this time. Elections are due in just a few months. And still smarting from the cha-cha fiasco, our legislators are badly in need of a gimmick to recoup their losses.

We can understand that as politicians they are bound to come up with strategies that will endear them to the public in times of elections. But please not at the expense of that very public. More importantly, not at the expense of the entire nation.