Southern Tagalog workers urge Senate to immediately pass P125

"If Congress passed House Bill 345 as a Christmas good news for the workers, 2007 will be a meaningful year for the workers should Senate approve the bill."

This is the statement of the militant Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU) or Solidarity of Workers in Southern Tagalog-May First Movement, after Congress passed HB 345 shortly before Christmas 2006.

PAMANTIK urges Senate Committee on Labor, headed by Senator Jinggoy Estrada, to expedite the ratification of P125 legislated wage increase.

The House of Representatives, on 20 December 2006, approved HB 345 or the "P125 legislated wage increase, across the board, nationwide" proposing a P45 increase on the first year, P40 on the second and third years.

"As the national election draws near, the senators need to decisively favor workers' interests and not any alibi reasoned out by capitalists to stall the approval of HB 345 en toto," said Luz Baculo, PAMANTIK secretary-general.

Baculo lashed out on the businessmen and capitalists' recent statement saying that such wage hike will greatly affect their enterprise.

"P125 is, in fact, but morsel compared to the capitalists' superprofits. In Southern Tagalog, where most companies are owned by foreign monopoly capitalists, the workers demand for wage increase is just a small sum compared to the multinational and transnational exploits of our cheap Philippine labor."

Baculo said that it is high time that workers be given their just demand and reap the fruits of their labor after nearly eight (8) years of struggle for the P125 legislated wage hike.

"At the onset, PAMANTIK considered the HB 345 a significant issue which is why workers gave full support for the campaign. Should the bill be ratified, this will be entirely different compared to the sugar-coated wage increases provided by the regional wage boards, as what DoLE Undersecretary Romeo Lagman proposes."

According to Baculo, Wage Orders No. 9, 10 and 11 promulgated by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB-Region IV-A) in 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively, downgraded the already low wages received by workers. The so-called wage "increases" were implemented while the provinces were re-classified to different wage levels.

Baculo concluded, "Workers in Southern Tagalog will sustain the struggle till the direct implementation of the P125 wage increase."