‘Legislated wage hike bill faces rough sailing in House’

BAGUIO CITY — The bill proposing a P125 legislated wage hike for private sector workers is expected to face rough sailing in the House of Representatives, an official of the party-list group Bayan-Muna admitted here yesterday.

Roberto de Castro, Bayan-Muna deputy secretary general, expressed skepticism that House Bill 2605 may even reach the House plenary session although a number of solons have thrown their support behind the measure.

De Castro spoke in yesterday morning’s rally by mostly government employees at the Igorot Park here. Elsewhere, workers staged similar rallies to protest the government’s refusal to grant a higher wage adjustment.

Bayan-Muna party-list representatives Crispin Beltran, Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza filed HB 2605 which was endorsed by the House committee on labor.

De Castro claimed that Speaker Jose de Venecia is against the bill and even wanted to dump it when it was submitted during the first week of August.

The bill’s endorsement, he said, "was only one step toward victory because the government is insulting workers nationwide with a counter-proposal of a P15 increase this year and another P15 next year."

Anthony Basil, Cordillera chairman of the Confederation of Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage), for his part, called on government workers in the region to support HB 2606 which proposes a legislated salary hike for government employees.

Basil, who works for the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration here, commended the good attendance of government workers in yesterday’s march-rally.

The government workers took a leave or were permitted by their department heads to take part in the protest rally.

Basil urged President Arroyo and Congress to prioritize the budget for basic social services rather than the allocation for "war materials" for the government’s anti-terrorism campaign. — With Sandy Araneta