Senators revive call for legislated wage hike after Marcos order for review

Senators on Thursday revived the call for a legislated wage hike after President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. ordered a review of minimum wage rates in every region.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, author of the bill that seeks to increase the minimum wage hike by P100, supported Marcos' latest order and called on the President to support Senate Bill 2534 while raising the need to certify this as urgent.

“I am one with our President in calling for the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards to do a regular review of our minimum wages and for the National Wages and Productivity Commission to ensure that the boards do so,” Zubiri said.

“In tandem with this, I also urgently appeal to our President to consider Senate Bill No. 2534, or the P100 Daily Minimum Wage Increase Act, which will be a massive step toward giving our hardworking laborers the living wages that they deserve. Perhaps it can even be certified as urgent, given the continued spike in the prices of goods owing to inflation," he added.

Zubiri also noted that the bill only needs the House of Representatives' action.

“Our workers, despite making massive contributions to our industries, are still dealing with wages that are not enough to cover their needs... All we need is the House counterpart measure, and this will be immediately felt across the sector," he said.

While it is good to review the regional minimum wage rates, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said it is "better to legislate a new nationwide minimum wage amount."

"If the existing system needs the President to request the regional wage boards (RWB) to review wage rates before the RWB actually acts and reviews them, then that only shows that the system is not working. The RWBs must be out of touch with reality already," Pimentel quipped.

"They are not sensitive anymore to the actual situation on the ground. MARAMI NA PONG NAGHIHIRAP kahit doon sa mga employed dahil ang bayad sa kanila na daily minimum wage ay hindi na makatarungan," he emphasized.

(Many Filipinos are experiencing poverty, even those who are employed because their daily minimum wage is unjust.)

Like Zubiri, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and Senator Francis Escudero stressed the need to push the House of Representatives to approve the counterpart measure of SB 2534.

"The Senate has already passed the P100 daily minimum wage rate increase bill and is currently waiting for legislative action on the part of the House of Representatives," Villanueva said while mentioning his bill seeking to establish standards for living wage.

"I hope this will lead to him certifying the Senate’s minimum wage increase bill para i-approve na din ng [H]ouse," Escudero said in a separate text message.

On Labor Day, Marcos ordered the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards to review the minimum wage rates in every region "with due consideration to the impact of inflation amongst others."

The President also directed the National Wages and Productivity Commission to review its rules to ensure regular and predictable schedule of wage review, issuance, and effectivity to reduce uncertainty and enhance fairness for all stakeholders.

'Is he serious?'

House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list and Raoul Manuel, meanwhile, called on Marcos to certify the pending bill on minimum wage hike in the House of Representatives as an urgent measure if he is really serious at alleviating the plight of the workers.

“Is he really serious about that? If so, why is he still in the review process? Hindi niya ba nakikita iyong inflation? Hindi niya ba nakikita ang panawagan ng manggagawa,” Castro told reporters.

(Is he blind to the inflation and the call of the workers?)

A bill certified as urgent by the President can be approved by Congress on second and third reading on the same day.

“Hindi ba niya nakikita ang pagdinig rito sa Kongreso. The Regional Wage Boards have been inutile for the longest time. That is why we have been calling for its abolition. Huwag na sa review, i-urgent mo na, President Marcos, itong pagtaas ng sweldo ng mga manggagawa,” Castro said.

Castro then said that a national wage hike should be implemented, given that the prices of basic goods and commodities hardly differ from the northernmost province of Batanes to the southernmost province of Sulu.

“Wage hike has been under study for the longest time. The workers should be granted a living and decent wage, as provided in our Constitution,” Castro added.

Manuel backed Castro, saying that passing the task to the regional wage boards won’t suffice because this has been the same old strategy that hardly yielded results in the past.

“The President is passing the task of wage hike on regional wage boards when these wage boards have been very slow on taking action on wage hike calls, and even sows division among our workers by, for example, granting a P20 hike in one region and setting a different amount of hike for another,” Manuel said.

But for House Deputy Majority Leaders Jude Acidre of Tingog party-list and House Assistant Minority Leader Mikaela Suansing, wage hike is needed but legislating such does not happen overnight.

“What the President said shows that he hears the call, and Congress is still hearing out the sentiments of our labor unions, leaders, on the proposed wage hike vis-a-visa the capacity of the employers to absorb the added cost,” Acidre said.

“Based on our rules, the bill should be reported out to the plenary by the committee first before the President can certify it as urgent,” Suansing added.

--with Llanesca T. Pati/ VAL, GMA Integrated News