Labor Leader Urges Marcos to Prioritize Wage Hike

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

A local labor leader on Friday, May 2, urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent the pending bills in the 19th Congress seeking to raise the national minimum wage.

Mario Andon, Panay-Guimaras coordinator of the Partido ng Manggagawa, said on Daily Guardian on Air that the Marcos administration appears to have sidelined the issue despite worsening living conditions.

Andon referenced a supposed pronouncement by the National Economic and Development Authority, now the Department of Economy, Planning and Development, claiming a family needs PHP32,000 monthly to survive.

While this statement could not be independently verified, records show that in 2018, NEDA said a family needed PHP42,000 per month for basic needs.

Andon cited Senate Bill No. 2534, which proposes a PHP100 daily minimum wage hike for private sector workers nationwide.

The Senate passed the bill on third reading on Feb. 19, 2024, but it has remained pending in the House of Representatives since the same day.

The House is considering its own proposal, House Bill No. 11376, which calls for a PHP200 across-the-board daily wage increase and was approved on second reading on Feb. 3.

“A living wage is clearly enshrined in the Constitution,” Andon said.

“The law mandates it, but the government seems deaf, especially now.”

He said the push for a regional wage increase is not merely a request, but a call for “wage recovery” in response to inflation and rising costs.

Andon criticized the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board for ignoring labor groups’ call to raise wages by PHP150.

“What we’re demanding is to recover the value of our wages diminished by inflation,” he said.

“But the RTWPB only granted an increase of around PHP35, bringing the daily wage to PHP513.”

He added that the real value of that wage is only PHP398 when adjusted for inflation.

“That’s our problem with the RTWPB,” Andon said.

“Their basis for increasing wages is not the worker’s purchasing power, but the capitalists’ ability to pay.”

“We work eight hours a day to produce goods and earn our pay, yet it’s the capitalists who take the profit,” he said.