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Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Malig: P500 per month wage hike
By Jun A. Malig
While it is necessary for the government to have a macro or over-all perspective of the country's economic condition, it would not hurt if it would find time to scrutinize the living condition of its population from a micro point of view. The P500 per month (or P20 per day) increase in workers' Cola is not something the workers should be grateful for.
OFFICIALS and members of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)-Central Luzon chapters have renewed their call for the ouster of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) General Manager Winston Garcia by wearing protest ribbons and armbands on Tuesday last week, the 68th founding anniversary of the state insurance firm.
Joey Pring, president of Courage's Central Luzon organizing committee, said his group, together with the ACT-Central Luzon, is seeking the removal of Garcia. "We want Winston Garcia out of GSIS now. We deserve a Garcia-less GSIS on the occasion of its 68th anniversary," he said. Courage-CL and ACT-CL members displayed placards and held noise barrage in the premises of the Angeles City Hall complex and other government sites to call for the "immediate sacking" of Garcia.
Fabian Hallig, ACT-CL secretary-general, said public school teachers have been "deprived" of their benefits and interests in the GSIS because of Garcia's "onerous" polices and decisions. He said since Garcia assumed his post in the state insurance firm, he had "unilaterally instituted cross-default and premium-based policies, which resulted in delays, denial, diminution and difficulties in accessing and releases of GSIS benefits and loans to its members."
Pring and Hallig said their groups are pressing for the "protection of GSIS fund" for the benefit of its members and beneficiaries.
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Only a month and a few days ago, a friend bought 30 tablets of Ezetrol (lipid-lowering compound) from Manson Drug at about P75 each. Because he was advised by his doctor to take his medication for 90 days (a tablet per day), he had to again buy 30 tablets after a month. To his surprise, the same drug store sold him the same 10-milligram Ezetrol tablets at about P95 each. Within only a month the price of his crucial medication rose by P20 per tablet. Now he is apprehensive that the medicine's cost might again go up upon his next purchase.
While P95 per day in medicine is not too difficult for some people to afford, spending such amount on a daily basis means financial struggle my childhood friend, who is just an ordinary employee earning only about P240 daily. His "take home pay" of barely P150 per day (after deducting transportation, food, tax, PhilHealth, SSS, Pag-Ibig, etc.) is now only P55 because of his P95 per day medication. For three months, his unemployed wife and two children have to painfully tighten their belts just to live with a budget of only P55 daily.
It's not easy for me to see my friend in his current situation. I knew him in our teenage days to be a spirited person with relentless optimism. I was not used to seeing him in self-effacing status. I was not used to hear his grim voice and seemly forced brief laughs. But I guess reality had caught up with him. He is no longer a carefree teenager. Now he had to work to live. Now he had to remedy the frailties of his body with high-cost medication to prevent stroke or heart disease.
On June 16, his daily wage would be increased by P20 in the form of cost of living allowance (Cola) - instead of hike in basic pay. The increase would mean some P500 hike in his monthly paycheck. It means P75 per day budget for his family's food, shelter, clothing, and other needs like electricity, education, and others. Of course one does not have to be a mathematician or economist to know that P75 is not enough to sustain his family's needs. In reality even his supposed P170 per day take-home-pay (minus his P95 per day tablet) would not be enough to provide his wife and children a fairly decent quality of life.
Studies conducted by the independent research think-tank Ibon Foundation reveal that about 87 percent of Filipino families do not earn enough to maintain a decent standard of living. It said the poverty line for a family of six outside Metro Manila is about P14,160 per month - the amount needed by an average family to have a decent living condition.
While it is necessary for the government to have a macro or over-all perspective of the country's economic condition, it would not hurt if it would find time to scrutinize the living condition of its population from a micro point of view. The P500 per month (or P20 per day) increase in workers' Cola is not something the workers should be grateful for. Their wages and salaries should have been increased a long time ago. And the wage hike should not be in the tune of only P500. It should be somewhere between P2,000 to P3,000 per month. Although such an increase would mean only P8,000 to P9,000 per month paycheck for ordinary wage earners, which is a lot lower than the P14,160 poverty line for a family of six.
(June 7, 2005 issue)
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