No Mandate Without Action

By all accounts, the Filipino people have spoken – and clearly. In a new national survey by non-partisan research firm WR Numero, voters from every region and political persuasion have issued a straightforward, unambiguous mandate to the incoming Congress: lower the cost of living and raise wages.

People aren’t just worried about their wallets – they want leaders who actually listen and act. A Congress that ignores this signal risks not just political backlash but a deeper erosion of public trust. Popular support, political power, and even partisan loyalty are meaningless if they fail to translate into tangible improvements in people’s everyday lives.

The WR Numero survey, released in April 2025 as part of the Philippine Public Opinion Monitor, found that 38% of Filipinos want Congress to prioritize lowering the prices of food and essential goods, while 36% called for wage increases – the top two concerns nationwide. These bread-and-butter issues consistently outpaced others, including crime (29%), poverty alleviation (29%), job creation (25%), and corruption (23%).

What’s striking is how universal these concerns are. Whether one supports President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Duterte bloc, the opposition, or no party at all, the message remains the same: people want economic relief, not political theater. In Luzon, 44% prioritized wage hikes, while in the Visayas, more than 40% cited inflation as their most urgent concern. Even in Mindanao, where crime and drug issues traditionally dominate discourse, inflation and wages tied for second place.

This cuts across political lines. Among Marcos supporters, 42% chose wage hikes as their top priority. Among Duterte loyalists, price reduction (35%) and wage increases (31%) dominated. Supporters of the opposition, often accused of being detached from mass concerns, also ranked economic issues highest. Independent voters, the elusive middle, mirror the same trend – 42% want food prices down, and 39% want better pay.

In other words, the Filipino electorate is not divided on what matters most. We are not at odds over whether the price of rice or the minimum wage should go up. We may differ in who we trust to deliver it – but the destination is shared.

This should be both a wake-up call and an opportunity for Congress.

Too often, lawmakers spend their early terms pushing legislation that either caters to a small elite or generates political headlines rather than progress. Recent congressional sessions have been consumed with posturing – on China, impeachment efforts, or even symbolic bills that have no real bearing on working-class life.

The same WR Numero survey showed that only 8% of respondents prioritize foreign policy issues like resisting China in the West Philippine Sea. Even fewer (4-5%) placed divorce, same-sex marriage, or political dynasty regulation among top priorities. These numbers aren’t a statement against those causes – they’re a plea for lawmakers to start where the pain is sharpest: the dining table, the pay slip, the grocery receipt.

This isn’t to say that long-term reforms or principled stands on rights and governance don’t matter. But they cannot be the first order of business while food prices remain volatile, real wages stagnate, and working families fall further behind.

In March 2025, government data showed inflation easing to 3.7%, but this figure masks the fact that food prices – especially rice, meat, and vegetables – remain high for low-income families. The minimum daily wage in Metro Manila, at PHP610, still fails to meet the estimated PHP1,200 daily family living wage. Outside NCR, the gap is even wider. This is the silent emergency Congress must confront.

There is hope – if there is will.

The new Congress has the power to push for meaningful economic reforms: indexing wages to inflation, expanding targeted subsidies for essential goods, revising the outdated wage-setting mechanisms, and passing long-delayed anti-poverty bills. There is also room to revamp PhilHealth and strengthen labor protections for contractual and gig workers – issues that surfaced in the survey, albeit less urgently, but with deep structural importance.

What the people are asking for is not charity. It’s not even populism. It’s dignity. And it’s entirely within the power of the legislature to act on it.

To delay is not just to disappoint – it is to deepen despair.

But the good news is this: Congress has a rare opportunity to show it is not tone-deaf. This incoming class of lawmakers can be remembered not for political brawls or media antics but for delivering real progress. That begins with listening – and then legislating – with urgency and empathy.

Let there be no illusions: political loyalty is a fragile currency. The true test of leadership is not in rallies or rhetoric, but in rice on the table, money in a parent’s hand on payday, and a future that doesn’t feel like a monthly gamble.

No political mandate is valid if it cannot feed the people who gave it.