Labor leader ask NSCB chief to live on Php 266/day

“He is out of touch with reality, charlatan of false information and insensitive to the worsening plight of ordinary Filipinos.”

This was the dig of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center to the recent announcement of National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Secretary General Romulo Virola that a family of five can survive on Php 266 a day.

“We challenge Mr. Virola to reduce his pay to Php 266/day for a whole month and try to feed his family with that measly amount. We would even go with him to the market and see how things work out,” said Nenita “Ka Nitz” Gonzaga, Secretary of the KMU Women’s Department.

According to Gonzaga, the Php 266/day is a far cry from the Family Living Wage of Php 749/day as declared by the NSCB in May 2006. “Because of the strong clamor for a substantial wage hike among Filipinos, Mr. Virola tries to insinuate that such demand for workers have no actual basis. To further discredit the demand of the workers, they reduced the amount supposedly needed by shifting from their usual family of six computations and reduced it to five, thus reducing it by Php 53.20.”

Poverty among Filipinos is so high that 2006 estimates of the Department of Health (DOH) stated that 3 out of 10 Filipino children aged 6-10 are malnourished. “The DOH acknowledged in 2006 that 100 Filipino children go blind weekly due to sickness attributed to poverty and now he has the guts to tell us to feed our families with just Php 204 per day,” said Gonzaga.

“Instead of providing possible and doable solutions to the worsening hunger among Filipino, the NSCB would rather tell us that we are not poor because we get to earn at least their prescribed amount. Statistical manipulation cannot dictate on our stomach to feel full when it is actually empty. What we need now is a P125 across-the-board increase to provide a relief to the poor families,” ended Gonzaga.