Pabor akong itaas ang minimum wage ng mga manggagawa. Hangga’t maaari nga dapat magawan ng paraan ng pamahalaan na wala nang minimum wage sa anumang rehiyon sa Pilipinas na mas mababa sa poverty-threshold na P13,797 kada buwan.*
PERO, dapat gawin ito sa paraang hindi manganganak ng iba pang problema sa kasalukuyan at sa hinaharap.
Ganito ang sinasabi ng Senate Bill 2534: P100 increase sa minimum wage sa parehong agricultural at non-agricultural. Pabor ako dun sa aspetong parehong tataasan ang sahod ng argi at non-agri kasi sa ganang akin, dapat pag-isahin na lang ang wage classification, wala nang separate for agri at non-agri.
But that P100 increase in the daily minimum wage proposed by the Senate is easier said than done. Kailangang balansehin ang interes ng lahat na sektor.
Congress should be able to balance the interests of workers and those of businesses. There are three possible scenarios if the P100 wage hike pushes through as it is written now in Senate Bill 2534: First, businesses can pass on the increased labor costs to consumers, which means prices of commodities could go up.
Second, businesses might lay off their workers. Third, some COVID-hit businesses that are just starting to recover from the pandemic may close. Around 90 percent of businesses in the Philippines are MSMEs.
Sa ganang akin, dapat hindi gawing isang bagsakan lang pagpapatupad ng P100 minimum wage hike as that would shock the economy. Hindi yan kakakayanin ng mga negosyo lalo na ng mga small medium enterprises (SMEs).
Para maging “doable” o para kayanin ang ganyang kataas na minimum wage increase, kailangang utay-utayin o gawing installment sa loob ng tatlong taon. Halimbawa: P40 on the first year, P40 on the second year, at P20 sa huling taon hanggang sa makumpleto ang P100 wage hike para sa NCR, Calabarzon, at Central Luzon regions dahil yan ang mga region na mas may-kaya.
Para naman sa para sa iba pang regions: P35, P35, at P30 ang kakayaning umento sa minimum wage sa loob ng tatlong taon rin. Sa ganyang paraan, naka-schedule na ang mga umento. Hindi masho-shock ang mga negosyo at ang buong ekonomiya.
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Statement of Senate Majority
Leader Joel Villanueva on the
adjustment of the school
calendar days
We thank the Department of Education (DepEd) for heeding the call to be more flexible and adaptive in determining school calendar days and prioritizing the welfare of the students.
This is why we authored and co-sponsored Republic Act No. 11480 during the 18th Congress to give the agency the flexibility to adjust the school calendar based on necessity, especially now that the country is experiencing the effects of El Niño. We don’t want a repeat of what happened to the 120 students in Laguna who were hospitalized due to heat exhaustion during a fire drill last year.
However, we must ensure that this adjustment does not reduce the length of the school calendar mandated by law, which is a minimum of 200 days. Additionally, we hope that there will be synchronicity between the DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched). There must be no lull time for students who are transitioning from secondary to tertiary levels. We urge the CHED and other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to consider this change so that the students will not lose their momentum in studying and no time will be wasted for them to learn.