MANILA, Philippines — Halos kalahati lang ang P610/araw na Metro Manila minimum wage ng sahod na kakailanganin para “mabuhay nang disente” ang pamilyang may limang miyembro sa rehiyon, ayon sa isang economic think tank.
Sa estima ng IBON Foundation na ibinahagi nitong Huwebes, pumapatak sa P1,192/araw ang tinaguriang family living wage sa National Capital Region (NCR) para sa buwan ng Abril — bahagyang pagbaba mula sa datos noong Marso.
Ang diumano’y living wage na ito ay sinasabing katumbas ng P25,928/buwang sahod kada pamilya sa NCR. Lagpas kalahati ito ng P13,420 na sasahurin ng isang minimum wage earner kung siya’y magtratrabaho mula Lunes hanggang Biyernes para sa buong buwan ng Abril.
“IBON computations [show] that minimum wages today are actually family poverty wages, w here prevailing regional minimum wages are even less than the official regional poverty thresholds for the first semester of 2023,” sabi ng IBON.
“The only exception is in the National Capital Region (NCR) where the minimum wage is slightly higher than the poverty threshold.”
Higit na mas mataas ang NCR family living wage sa P13,797/buwang average poverty thresold ng bansa na itinatakda ng Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) at P15,000/buwang self-rated poverty threshold ng Social Weather Stations (SWS).
Ang poverty threshold ay tumutukoy sa “minimum income” na kailangan ng isang pamilya para matugunan ang batayang basic food at non-food requirements kada buwan, ayon sa gobyerno.
Ibinase ng IBON ang kanilang family living wage sa pinagsama-samang kakailanganing gastusin ng pamilya gaya ng pagkain, renta, tubig, kuryente, transportasyon, pagpaparal, ipon, atbp.
Inestima rin ng IBON ang mga wage gap — o kulang na pera bago maabot ang family living wage — kada rehiyon. Ang lahat ng minimum wage sa probinsya ay mas mababa kaysa sa NCR.
Narito ang minimum wage rates, family living wage, at wage gap sa lahat ng rehiyon ng Pilipin as:
Kung ia-average ang mga datos sa buong Pilipinas, lalabas ang sumusunod:
“[O]ver 370 wage orders by the regional wage boards since being created in 1989 have not been enough to keep up with inflation and the average real value of regional minimum wages today is worth 22% less than 34 years ago,” sabi pa ng IBON Foundation.
“[R]aising wages is just and viable, contrary to the doomsday scenarios of employers groups and the government… employee compensation is on average just 11% of expenses of firms of all sizes and in all industries nationwide.”
“A Php100 across-the-board wage hike is equivalent to just an average of 7.1% of profits of all establishments and 7.5% for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and a Php150 wage hike only 10.6% of profits across all establishments and 11.3% for MSMEs.”
Dagdag pa nila, kayang-kaya ito lalo na’t 88% ang inilaki ng labor productivity simula 1989. Sa kabila nito, nasa 22% ang ibinaba ng average minimum wage kung susukatin ito sa “real terms.” Lalabas din aniyang 104% ang inilaki ng kita ng top 100 corporations sa pagitan ng 2020 at 2022.
Nangyayari ang lahat ng ito matapos iulat ng PSA na lumobo sa 3.8% ang inflation rate noong Marso 2024 dahil sa tulin ng pagtaas ng presyo ng bilihin — primarya sa gastusing pagkain at transportasyon.
Tumaas naman sa 3.9% ang unemployment rate sa Pilipinas noong nakaraang buwan, katumbas ng 2 milyong Pilipinong walang trabaho.
Ika-30 ng Abril lang nang ibalita ng SWS na lumobo ang kagutuman sa 14.2% noong Marso mula sa 12.6% noong Disyembre 2023.
Ilang araw pa lang ang nakalilipas nang iutos ni Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ang pagrerebyu ng minimum wage rates sa Pilipinas para mai-adjust ito.
Gayunpaman, sinabi ng ilang grupo ng manggagawa na mas magandang sertipikahan bilang urgent ang mga panukalang batas na magtataas sa minimum wage sa bansa.
“Kung gugustuhin ng gobyerno, gagawan nila ng paraan. Mas malaki [ang umento sa sahod], mas mainam,” wika ni Sonny Africa, executive director ng IBON Foundation.
COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents closed down a drug den in Pagadian City and entrapped a long-wanted shabu peddler in Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur in separate operations in two days.
Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-9, told reporters on Thursday that their agents arrested five individuals, four of them minors, inside a drug den in Purok Upper Lumboy in Barangay Tuburan in Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur province that they raided on Monday.
Gadaoni-Tosoc said the 42-year-old drug den operator Flor Ponce Espinosa and his four accomplices, all high school students, are now under their custody. The two would be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
She, however, emphasized that authorities would seek the help of the Pagadian City Social Welfare Office in overseeing the detention of the four young accomplices of Espinosa, from whose drug den PDEA-9 agents found 25 sachets of shabu and drug sniffing paraphernalia.
The operation that led to the arrest of Espinosa and the four minors was premised on tips by confidential informants, among them barangay officials aware of their illegal activities.
It preceded Wednesday’s entrapment in Barangay Kanguan in Datu Piang, Maguindanao Del Sur by agents of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao of a shabu peddler who operated near school campuses and in public markets in different towns in the province.
Gil Cesario Castro, director of PDEA-BARMM, said on Thursday that the suspect, Jomarie Kabucan Sakilan, 27, is now detained in their office at the PC Hill Complex in Cotabato City.
Sakilan, who hails from Barangay Matilak in Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao del Norte, was immediately frisked and cuffed by non-uniformed PDEA-BARMM agents and operatives from different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region after selling to them P340,000 worth of shabu in an entrapment operation in Barangay Kanguan.
Castro said that the entrapment of Sakilan was planned with the help of vigilant villagers, among them his relatives by blood, and the Datu Piang local government unit.
Local officials, among them senior members of different municipal peace and order councils in Maguindanao del Sur, have confirmed to reporters that Sakilan and his accomplices sold shabu near school campuses and have contacts in public markets and terminals of passenger vehicles too.