WITH only six session days left in the 19th Congress, the National Wage Coalition (NWC) yesterday pressed the House of Representatives to immediately pass the bill granting a P200 wage hike to minimum wage earners.
In a statement, the NWC urged lawmakers to pass the P200 legislated wage hike before they adjourn on June 13.
“This is the moment of truth. Let us not fail the more than five million minimum wage earners who have suffered for far too long,” said the NWC.
“Together, let us make history by lifting them out of poverty and bringing the nation closer to fulfilling the constitutional right of a living wage nearly four decades since that promise was made,” it added.
Workers said they have waited long enough for the measure after attending years of exhaustive deliberations where academia, civil society, the informal sector, economists, and minimum wage earners delivered testimonies.
“Their powerful testimonies of research and experience exposed the inadequacy of current regional minimum wages, established the urgent need for a legislated wage increase to augment purchasing power, increase productivity, and drive growth, and dismantled the tired scare tactics about inflation, job losses, and business closures,” said the NWC.
Failure to pass the measure, they said, would be tantamount to the abandonment of lawmakers’ previous commitment to the workers.
“To do otherwise is not merely neglect of duty but a betrayal of trust,” said NWC.
The Senate passed the P100 wage increase bill as early as last year, while the House of Representatives passed the P200 wage hike on second reading before the 2025 midterm elections.
Members of the National Wage Coalition, composed of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition (NAGKAISA!), and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) trooped to the House of Representatives yesterday to press the lawmakers to pass the bill.
