16/04/2025
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TUCP URGES PBBM TO CERTIFY ₱200 WAGE HIKE AND MEET WITH LABOR AS SELF-RATED POVERTY AND HUNGER SURGE:
MR. PRESIDENT, GUTOM AT GALIT NA ANG TAO!
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has formally reiterated its urgent appeal to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. to certify as urgent the ₱200 legislated wage hike, authored by the TUCP Party-list and finally meet the labor leaders for the first time since the start of the Marcos Administration in 2022. “As we approach the midterm elections, prices, wages, and jobs remain the most pressing concerns of our people. We are entering the final three years of your Administration, yet our country’s workers—those who have kept our economy running—have not yet had the opportunity to meet or speak with you,” stated the TUCP in a letter sent to President Marcos last 11 April 2025.
This renewed demand comes in the wake of alarming data from the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, showing that 52% or around 14.4 million Filipino families considered themselves poor last March up from 51% in February. “When half the nation openly acknowledges that they are poor - this harsh truth resonates and no amount of false bonhomie can camouflage it. Only a long-overdue and much-deserved ₱200 legislated wage hike, instead of emergency employment or social welfare intervention, is powerful enough to break the vicious cycle of token increases and poverty wages that insultingly fall below the already-low poverty line. The legislated wage hike is the only hope for the vast majority of our workers, who, sadly, are left without unions, without collective bargaining agreements, and without security of tenure especially in the midst of the pandemic of ENDO contractualization,” said TUCP President and House Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (TUCP Party-list) who authored the ₱200 legislated daily minimum wage increase that was already approved by the House of Representatives on second reading and set for third and final reading this June, within the remaining six-day session of the 19th Congress.
The country's largest labor center TUCP has repeatedly pointed out that minimum wages across the country fall not only below the poverty threshold but even below the Ateneo Policy Center's estimated daily cost of the government’s 'Pinggang Pinoy' healthy food guide for a family of five, which stands at ₱693.30/day. This is mirrored in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which shows a sharp alarming rise in hunger: from 26.4% to 35.6% among self-rated poor families between February and March 2025, and from 16.2% to 18.3% among the non-poor—pushing overall hunger to a staggering 27.2%.
“When one in every three Filipinos—rich or poor—is going hungry, workers feel that we are now in full-blown national emergency demanding Presidential certification as urgent. Not another motherhood promise of a ‘great deal of study.’ Not another recycled directive to the regional wage boards for ‘timely review.’ We trust that President Marcos will rise to the moment and meet with labor leaders to discuss and certify the ₱200 wage hike bill as urgent—on or before 01 May 2025, Labor Day,” underscored Mendoza.
