One time, big time

MANILA, Philippines — The renewed bid to pass into law the latest proposals for legislated wage hike across the country might finally turn into reality in the present 19th Congress. Where Congresses in the past failed, Senate president Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri believes the incumbent lawmakers could this time deliver this promise.

That is, of course, if the present administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) would sign into law and not veto the proposed wage hike bill once they finally get through the legislative mills.

A wage hike will not make much of a dent on the profitability of the country’s top 1,000 corporations, Zubiri pointed out. But he conceded it would add burden to the operations of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Zubiri reassured the lawmakers will try to come up with a “graduated” wage hike that can achieve balance between helping workers cope with inflation while ensuring that businesses, particularly MSMEs, will not be seriously dislocated.

“Legislation is a lot of negotiations and compromises,” the Senate chief admitted.

If we are to gauge the sentiments of the present administration, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bienvenido “Benny” Laguesma expressed no vehement objection to a proposed legislative wage hike. Provided, he qualified, it undergoes thorough study and scrutiny of all stakeholders, namely, the labor groups, the business sector or management, and the government.

Laguesma disclosed the DOLE is currently drafting the technical inputs, coming from the tripartite consultations, for submission to both the Senate and the House of Representatives. As the alter ego of the Chief Executive, Laguesma cited, the DOLE is mandated to implement legislated measures that went through the process of Congress.

Both Laguesma and Zubiri obviously avoided each other to debate before the public on the controversial legislated wage hike bills. The DOLE Secretary and the Senate president joined us one after the other in our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay breakfast news forum last Wednesday. But before Laguesma took a bow, the Senate president told the DOLE Secretary he is among those invited to a public hearing to attend on May 10 that will tackle the nine proposed wage hike bills.

The public hearing of the Senate committee on labor headed by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada will present the wage hike bills for DOLE’s consideration, Zubiri announced. However, the counterpart bills in Congress remain languishing at the Lower House. Neither are they included in the list of priority bills that was agreed on earlier by PBBM with the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). The House leadership headed by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez earlier committed to pass into law the remaining administration’s priority bills before the sine die adjournment on June 2.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) party-list Representative Raymond Democrito Mendoza filed one of counterpart legislated wage hike as House Bill 7871, or the “Wage Recovery Act of 2023.” Mendoza seeks to provide an across-the-board wage recovery increase of P150 in the daily wages of workers and employees in the private sector nationwide. “The TUCP feels that this bill is the urgent, actionable, and reasonable course of action that we should now take as a nation through legislation,” underscored Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

The Senate chief acknowledged both workers and businesses have been badly hit by the surging inflation and continue to suffer the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zubiri welcomed the reports that businesses have regained lost grounds and are back to their “pre-pandemic” operations since the Philippines re-opened its economy. He grudgingly noted though that the salaried workers and daily wage earners receive the same pre-pandemic pay.

An owner of an ice-making factory and a power plant, Zubiri raved about the 15-month pay he gave this year to all his workers. “I am walking the talk,” he enthused.

Zubiri echoed the complaints of many organized labor groups denouncing the regional wage boards (RWBs) in granting scanty pay increase not commensurate with the rising costs of living. The last legislated wage hike was granted in1989 under Republic Act 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act that delegated to the RWBs the wage-setting from then on.

Zubiri, however, rued, there has been no substantial increase in wages granted by the RWBs. Based on the February 2023 consumer price index (CPI) figures, the purchasing power lost from the current minimum wages across the regions range from P55 to P89, with the national average lost from daily minimum wages pegged at P73 per day.

Thus, the present P570 daily minimum wage in the national capital region translates to a real value of a measly P482 a day. Zubiri blamed the declining value of wages in the Philippines has caused the “diaspora” of professional and highly skilled Filipino workers from nurses and doctors to construction workers migrating abroad in search of better and higher paying jobs.

As the country’s third highest elected official, Zubiri declared, the passage into law of these proposed wage hike bills are included in the priority legislative agenda of the Senators for the remaining four weeks of the first regular sessions of the 19th Congress. He noted this priority concern for the legislated wage hike bills is also shared by both Senators Joel Villanueva and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, the Senate majority and the minority leaders, respectively.

“This is the statement of the Senate. We, at the Senate, will make a stand for it (for legislated wage hike),” Zubiri vows. “It’s not a political gimmick. It’s not a popularity contest,” he stressed, citing the next mid-term elections are set for May 2025 yet.

If we are to believe the very impassioned push of the Senate chief, he vows to shepherd the passage into law at the Upper Chamber of Senate Bill (SB) 1002 seeking a wage increase of as much as P150 a day across-the-board.

The Senate president calls it “one time, big time” wage hike.