TUCP SLAMS NEDA’S ABSURDLY LOW FOOD POVERTY THRESHOLD AS AN INSULT TO FILIPINO WORKERS: WHAT DECENT MEAL CAN ₱20 BUY? CONGRESS SHOULD ACT NOW AND PASS ₱150 WAGE HIKE!

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) lambasts the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) outlandish assertion that a Filipino can survive on three meals a day with a mere ₱64. Grilled by senators during the budget briefing of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on how the Government classifies food-poor Filipinos, NEDA Secretary-General Arsenio Balisacan responded: “As of 2023, a monthly food threshold for a family of five is ₱9,581, that comes out [to] about ₱64 per person.”

“Is our country’s chief economic planner on another planet to not witness the crippling impact of skyrocketing food inflation, especially rice, and electricity inflation to Filipinos every day? This is a severe insult to Filipino workers who sacrifice their blood, sweat, and tears to do honest hard work but are reduced to a meal worth just ₱20! This is not just offensive—it’s dangerous. It threatens to undermine the much-needed ₱150 across-the-board wage hike proposed by TUCP as the Government and employers abuse these silly statistics to dismiss the survival crisis of the working class—to make ends meet,” stated TUCP Vice President Luis Corral.

The country’s largest labor center TUCP expresses deep indignation that workers are being forced, by their own Government, to endure standards and benchmarks that condemn them to perpetual hunger and a life of eking out a living on scraps. Without the immediate passage of House Bill No. 7871 which seeks to legislate an across-the-board wage recovery increase of ₱150 in the daily wages of private sector workers nationwide, workers can never bring nutritious food to their family’s table, resulting in malnourished children and sick workforce with their productivity and competitiveness dropping like a rock.

“Is this how our economic managers advise our President? Is this how economic planning and wage orders are devised? Really? Are our technocrats really basing their strategy on numbers that have no relation to the real prices of rice, poultry, meat, fish, and vegetables in the public market? Foisting that outrageous food poverty threshold is a grave disservice to the Marcos Administration which vows to reduce poverty to single digit not by statistical gimmickry but by actually improving the quality of lives and livelihood of every Filipino. Our economic managers are badly serving the Filipino people by building a supposedly robust economy on the backs of hungry people and poverty-level wages. Such an unrealistically low food poverty threshold only serves to arm those who oppose our proposed concrete, actionable, and reasonable wage hike, not only undermining the credibility of the Government but derailing our efforts to uplift the lives of our people and uphold their rights which should be the hallmarks of ‘Bagong Pilipinas’,” lamented Corral.

While the food poverty threshold according to NEDA is at least ₱64 per individual per meal, the Ateneo Policy Center estimates that the government-prescribed daily healthy food guide ‘Pinggang Pinoy’ for a family of five would cost ₱693. The National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) last estimated the family living wage in 2008 at ₱917.

“No wonder, Filipino students are lagging behind international education rankings as they suffer or even die from malnutrition—principally because under the regional wage board system for 35 years of scraps as increases, workers’ wages failed to keep up with the rising cost of living and to fulfill the Constitutional right to a living wage,” explained Corral.

According to UNICEF Philippines, every day, 95 children in the Philippines die from malnutrition, and twenty-seven out of 1,000 Filipino children do not get past their fifth birthday. A third of Filipino children are stunted or short for their age.  In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 survey among 15-year-old students from 79 countries, Filipino students scored lowest in reading and second to lowest in mathematics and science. According to the World Bank, nearly one in three Filipino children under five years of age is stunted primarily due to poverty.

“Congress can no longer afford to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to these absurd official statistics and skewed standards that distort the harsh reality faced by Filipino workers and their families. With high prices and low wages as the most urgent issues plaguing our nation, there is only one course of action: Congress must urgently pass the ₱150 wage hike proposed by TUCP to end the crisis of poverty wages further eroded by surging prices,” emphasized Corral.

General Membership Assembly KILUSAN-TUCP

TUCP URGES: “SA IKATLONG SONA NG PANGULO, BIGYANG HALAGA NAMAN SANA ANG MANGGAGAWANG PILIPINO!”

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) calls on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr., on his 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA), to place workers front-and-center in shaping our collective vision of a “Bagong Pilipinas.” 

"Ang mga manggagawa naman sana ay bigyang halaga sa pangatlo niyang SONA," the TUCP urges, explaining the prevalence of precarious work such as short-term, low-end gig, and ENDO jobs with poverty-level minimum wages under which a family of five could not even afford three nutritious meals a day. "This vicious cycle makes workers 'disposable' and where they are routinely subjected to harassment and political profiling which is unfortunately the current state of Filipino workers," the TUCP stated. 

The TUCP, the country’s largest labor center, reiterates the need for a long-overdue dialogue between the Philippine labor movement and the President to tackle the true state of Filipino workers and their families without filter or embellishments.

The TUCP feels that the Marcos Administration can do so much more by certifying urgent long-pending priority labor reforms to raise wages, uphold workers’ freedom of association, and create new, permanent, and decent jobs.

“We welcome the target to create three million jobs under the Trabaho Para Sa Bayan law, but these jobs should alleviate poverty in an environment that recognizes and respects the human dignity of every Filipino worker. This means improvements in the quality of life of every Filipino worker and their respective families. This means decent and permanent jobs where workers are paid a living wage and freely exercise labor rights without fear, especially their right to freedom to organize and join a union, and not just the insult of mere lip service to workers in addition to the injury of wage orders keeping wages low,” the TUCP explained. 

Soaring food and electricity prices incessantly erode the purchasing power of workers’ wages especially as the ₱35.00 wage increase from the NCR regional wage board cannot even buy the workers and their families a kilo of quality rice.  

The TUCP urges the President to certify as urgent the bill granting an across-the-board wage increase of ₱150.00 nationwide maintaining that the NCR ₱35-wage increase is insultingly paltry, which is not even enough to afford a decent meal, solve the crisis of malnutrition, and child stunting, fatally threatening Filipino children to be either too short for their age and mentally stunted or worst, being the reason why they cannot even reach their fifth birthday. 

“Only the Congress holds the key to raise workers’ wages at levels that can afford three nutritious meals daily for their families and ensure their decent lives in the spirit of simple fairness and social justice. A substantial wage hike today is an investment for a bright tomorrow with a healthy and competitive future workforce,” underscored the TUCP.  The TUCP also called on House Speaker Martin Romualdez to prioritize the immediate passage of the most urgent law demanded and deserved by every Filipino worker— House Bill No. 7871, known as the Wage Recovery Act, filed by the TUCP that seeks to give a daily across-the-board ₱150 wage hike nationwide.

The TUCP also reminds the Marcos Administration that trade and investments into the country are conditioned on the observance of labor rights and are not just all about providing an enabling business environment through ease of doing business. "Ang mga manggagawa naman ay bigyan kahalagahan! Bagong Pilipinas should be anchored on the rule of law, where our dark long history of anti-union violence, political profiling, and impunity aimed at workers and unions in the country definitely has no place,” the TUCP stated.

“We cannot have a ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ while the country continues to be among the ten worst countries for workers for nearly a decade. We trust that under President Marcos’ modern and modernizing leadership, we can correct our troubling track record in workers’ rights and promote a race-to-the-top labor relations through sincere and genuine social partnership with the workers," the TUCP emphasized.

In addition to the legislated wage hike, the TUCP calls on the President to certify urgent the following long-pending priority labor legislation to align labor laws and practices with ratified  International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions. "Surely, the country would not want to perennially be in the shortlist for persistent violation of international labor standards for two straight years since 2023". The TUCP therefore calls for passage of the following: 

(a) HOUSE BILL NO. 1512: SECURITY OF TENURE (SOT) ACT to end the pandemic of ENDO contractualization in the country and to restore security of tenure as the norm in labor relations.

(b) HOUSE BILL NO. 1518: UNION FORMATION ACT to strengthen the rights of workers to self-organization by lowering the requirements for union registration.

(c) HOUSE BILL NO. 5536: ASSUMPTION OF JURISDICTION ACT to limit the power of the DOLE Secretary to assume jurisdiction over labor disputes from the overly-broad “industries indispensable to national interest” to only those  “industries providing essential services.”

(d) HOUSE BILL NO. 7043: WORKERS’ RIGHT TO STRIKE ACT to remove dismissal and imprisonment as a penalty for illegal strikes and lockouts.

Prioritizing these labor reforms promotes an enabling environment. But we not only need to put Filipinos back to work but create new opportunities, especially to our millions of fresh graduates every year.  To this end TUCP asks the President to also prioritize the TUCP Jobs Agenda: 

(a) NATIONAL RAILWAY SYSTEM CONNECTING REGIONAL AND PROVINCIAL AGRI-INDUSTRIAL HUBS. This will create new jobs, ensure food security, decongest urban metropolitan areas, and democratize wealth creation by promoting rural development and job generation. It will ultimately lower the cost of doing business throughout the countryside, incentivizing the entry of foreign investments; 

(b) JUST TRANSITION PROGRAM, with tripartite partners in Government, labor, and business,  to ensure human-centered and worker-friendly solutions, such as via massive reskilling and upskilling, to seize millions of new, permanent, and decent employment opportunities in green jobs, such as renewable energy and environmental compliance, and digital jobs, such as e-commerce and big data.

“With all our social partners, let us work together as one nation in upholding labor rights, building infrastructure, and prioritizing human capital development to generate more and better jobs today and tomorrow—tungo sa Bagong Pilipinas para sa Manggagawa, Mamumumuhunan, at Mamamayang Pilipino!” the TUCP emphasized.

Labor groups to Marcos: Certify proposed P150 legislated wage as urgent

Labor groups on Monday called on President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to certify the proposed measures for a P150 increase in the minimum wage of private sector employees as urgent.

The National Wage Coalition (NWC) made the call a week ahead of Marcos’ third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.

“‘Yung mga panukalang batas natin na nakabinbin sa Kongreso, ‘yun na lang ang tanging pag-asa natin upang makadama ang ating manggagawa ng sapat na dagdag-sahod,” said Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Legislative Officer Paul Gajes in a media briefing.

(The proposed bills are our only hope for an adequate wage hike.)

“’Yung P35 na binigay ng Regional Wage Boards (RWB), hindi sasapat yun,” Gajes added.

(The P35 wage hike of the RWB is not enough.)

The coalition, composed of workers’ organizations including SENTRO, Nagkaisa, TUCP, and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, also urged Speaker Martin Romualdez to expedite the passage of the proposed bills at the House of Representatives.

“Sa tingin ng NWC, nararapat na bigyang-pansin ng Pangulo. I-certify na as urgent itong pending bills na ito at ang Kamara… sana naman i-expedite na itong bills na to,” said Gajes.

(The NWC thinks President Marcos should certify these bills as urgent and the House should expedite their passage.)

Earlier this month, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) approved the P35 hike in the daily minimum wage of workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), increasing it from P610 to P645 for the non-agriculture sector.

But Gajes earlier said the wage hike is not enough, describing it as “crumbs tossed to humiliate workers.”

“It’s high time that the President and Speaker of the House show their genuine concern for the underprivileged and heed the cause of the united Filipino workers for sustainable and livable wages. ‘Yung P35 just won’t do,” he added.

The NWC was pushing for the passage of the legislated wage hike as it raised concerns about the inadequacy of the minimum wage to provide families with a decent standard of living.

In February, Cavite lawmaker Jolo Revilla said there were at least 77 House members who would support the P150 legislated wage hike.

Also in February, the Senate approved a P100 legislated wage hike for private sector workers. — Story by SUNDY LOCUS,GMA Integrated News