“Hindi lang kayang-kaya. Kailangan yan.”
This is how Bayan Muna first nominee Neri Colmenares described the proposal to increase the minimum wage to P1,200.
Bayan Muna has its eyes all set to return to the House of Representatives where they intend to intensify their fight for better pay for the country’s lowest-earning workers, vowing to champion measures in the legislature that would mandate a substantial increase to help families in the region cope.
Last year, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a wage review. According to reports, all 17 Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) have already acted on the order and have begun their respective deliberations.
In Mindanao
Earlier this year, Bayan Muna nominees and former legislators Carlos Isagani Zarate and Eufemia Cullamat have put a spotlight on the suffering of low-income families in Mindanao, where they bear the brunt of the widening gap between the rising cost of basic goods and services and stagnant wages.
Both Zarate and Cullamat hails from Mindanao.
“The daily wages in Mindanao are far from meeting the estimated P1,100 daily cost of living required (for minimum wage earners) to sustain a family of five. Many families are forced to cut back on essentials like education and healthcare, compounding the cycle of poverty,” Zarate was quoted as saying in a news report.
MindaNews said in their report that the daily minimum wage is below P500, less than half of the proposed P1,200 minimum wage for workers in the private sector.
Can employers afford wage increase?
Independent thinktank Ibon Foundation said in its report earlier this year that employers have the capacity to carry out a P200 across-the-board wage increase.
The call for a P200 daily across-the-board wage increase for the private sector stems from a bill that was approved by the House Committee on Labor and Employment earlier this year. If signed into law, the group said this will be the first across-the-board wage hike in 35 years.
Based on the government’s Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry back in 2022, salaries only amounts to 11 percent of the total firm expenses for all enterprises in the country.
The situation of government workers, on the other hand, is no different. Former Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite, who is also its nominee now, once assailed the proposed wage increase for government workers as inadequate and insufficient to meet their basic needs.
“The supposed salary increase is nothing but a pittance,” Gaite stated.
Bayan Muna’s track record
Bayan Muna has a long track record in fighting for the rights and welfare of Filipinos.
It includes proposed laws such as the Public Sector Unionism Bill, Magna Carta of Private Health Workers, P3,000 Monthly Inflation Adjustment Allowance, Expanding Unemployment Benefits of Involuntary Unemployed Workers, Security of Tenure, and the Repeal Wage Rationalization Act, to name a few.
Several of their legislative measures were also signed into law. These include the Republic Act 9504 or the Tax Exemptions for Minimum Wage Earners, and the Republic Act 10653 or the Increased Ceiling for Tax Exempt Benefits.
Bayan Muna hopes to expand and intensify these measures once they are back in the House of Representatives.
Zarate, in a video message posted in its official social media platform today said in Filipino, “Bayan Muna Partylist is also in solidarity with the workers struggle to bring down the prices of basic goods by removing taxes and in fighting corruption.” ###