GMA reiterates call on Congress to strengthen wage boards

President Arroyo yesterday asked Congress to empower the regional wage boards to discuss possible increases of the minimum wage more than once a year.

"We continue to push for added benefits for our workers and for the amendment of the law creating the tripartite regional wage boards (TRWBs)to allow the raising of salaries more than once a year, if warranted," the President said.

She earlier backtracked on her proposal for a legislated minimum wage hike and instead called for non-wage benefits for workers, pending a review of the law on TRWBs.

In withdrawing her proposal for a legislated wage hike, Mrs. Arroyo said the business sector and the continued operation of firms that provide workers with employment must be considered.

However, officials said the issue of a wage hike is not dead yet because Congress also agreed to review the functions of the TRWBs to make them more relevant and effective in addressing the needs of workers.

Workers belonging to the moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) are now demanding a minimum P70 increase in their daily take-home pay.

The government said it would begin talks with the concerned sectors regarding a possible increase in the minimum wage through the country’s wage boards.

Businessmen also agreed to discuss this matter as long as there is no discussion of a legislated wage hike, saying they, too, want to help their employees cope with the rising cost of living.

The implementation of the amended expanded value-added tax (EVAT) law and a recent series of increases in the world price of crude oil contributed to hikes in the prices of fuel and basic commodities.

TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar said the country’s largest labor group has presented its demand for an across-the-board wage hike of P70 to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

"It does not matter whether (the wage hike) would be legislated or implemented through regional wage boards," Aguilar said. "We want at least a P70 adjustment in the daily pay of workers nationwide."

According to Aguilar, the P70 wage hike sought by TUCP is just enough to cover the erosion of workers’ purchasing power.

In a related development, the Department of Energy (DOE) expects another rollback in oil prices because of the reduction of the demand for fuel on the world market.

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Rafael Lotilla said in an interview during Vice President Noli de Castro’s weekly radio program that a rollback in the price of fuel is likely to happen if the demand for fuel is lower than previous months, particularly August and September.

The rollback is also a result of the United States and European governments’ willingness to release their strategic reserves.

However, Lotilla said the fuel price rollback will not affect liquefied petroleum gas because LPG prices are affected by the increasing demand in China and India.

The three big oil companies, Petron, Caltex Phils. and Shell, lowered their fuel prices by 50 centavos Saturday.

Meanwhile, the President said the country’s good economic indicators now make her critics appear "out of tune" and counterproductive, especially with the implementation of the EVAT law that has put the country back on the global investment map.

"Our detractors are being rendered irrelevant and out of tune by the sturdy economic indicators," the President said during the gathering of the Christian Muslim Democrats in Clark, Pampanga.

The President cited the "new round of oil price reductions, the surge of direct foreign investments by 70 percent, the $2.5-billion portfolio inflows, the strengthening of the peso, hitting a five-month high at P54.42 per dollar, and the robust capital stock market" as the best evidence of the government’s growth despite the continuous political bickering.

In a roundtable discussion held later with various officials and aired over government television station NBN-4, the President said she was happy that prices of basic commodities remained stable and that there would be no more transport fare increases despite the EVAT implementation. — Aurea Calica, Pia Lee-Brago