House Bill 375

Casiño: regional poverty incidence highlights urgency of P125 wage hike bill

Press Release
June 2, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño today called on private sector workers to lobby hard for the passage of a legislated wage hike "that would provide substantial relief to workers and their families, most especially in regions and provinces that have among the highest poverty incidence rates in the country.”

At the hearing of the House Committee on Labor and Employment tackling House Bill 375 (An Act Providing for a P125.00 Daily Across-The-Board Increase in the Salary Rates of Employees and Workers in the Private Sector and for Other Purposes) held in this city, Rep. Casiño stated that a substantive legislated wage hike would not only help the workers by providing immediate economic relief but also help reduce poverty in Region VIII (Eastern Visayas).

“Low wage levels have a great impact on poverty incidence in the country, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao. The current Region VIII daily minimum wage rate was increased by a measly 25 pesos. Pero ang ginawa ng Wage Board dito, chinop-chop ang implementation. Barya na nga lang, di pa sinagad sa implementasyon," he said.

Effective June 1, the minimum wage range from P188.50-P228 was increased to P208.50-P248 or an increase of P20/day. The P5 remaining hike will only become effective on September 1, 2011 wherein Region 8 wage rates will range from P213.50-P253 per day.

"I am in fact aghast at the extremely low and distorted wages in the region that is a far cry from daily minimum wages in the National Capital Region that range from P389-P426 after a P22 peso hike effective last May 26. With these immensely low wage adjustments, nothing much can happen with regard to poverty reduction in all of the country’s regions,” Casiño said.

In pressing for the passage of HB 375, Casiño, who is also the spokesman of the Makabayan Coalition in Congress, cited data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showing that Region VIII and some of its provinces ranked high in poverty incidence.

The latest NSCB data (2009) on the country’s poverty incidence among families and poverty incidence among the population was at 20.9% and 26.5% respectively. But figures in Eastern Visayas were higher than the national average among families (33.2 %) and as a percentage of total population (41.4%). In terms of poverty incidence, Eastern Samar ranked 4th with 45.8% and Northern Samar 10th at 41.7% in the Top Ten Poorest Provinces in the country.  Leyte was Number 6 in the Top Ten Provinces with the Most Number of Poor Families with 110,214. "These figures will certainly not change even with the P25 peso hike. An additional substantial hike via legislation is urgently needed if we want to make a meaningful dent in reducing poverty in Region VIII,” Casiño said.

“Let us remember that poverty is basically the condition of receiving less income that the average individual or family needs to survive, with little or no prospect of increasing that income without appropriate government attention and intervention. The last legislated wage hike was in 1989. All the regional wage boards in the country have never issued a wage order that approximates previous legislated wage hikes. Without a P125 wage hike, nothing will improve among workers and their families in Region VIII and the whole country,” he stressed.

Likewise, Casiño appealed to employers to be more understanding of the workers' plight and see the positive impact that higher wages would have on the productivity and purchasing power of their employees, leading to higher demand for local products and services.