Workers are again pushing to institutionalize a national daily minimum wage of ₱750 amid skyrocketing prices and service bills.

According to Ibon Foundation, the gap between the current minimum wage and living wages has grown wider. According to the group’s computation, a family of five needs ₱1,072 a day or ₱25,252 a month to live decently. This was when the state put inflation at a “low 3%,” and has not yet factored in prices increases in March.

It is not true that prices increase because wages go up, as claimed by the Duterte regime’s economic officials. Wages have increased the slowest under the Duterte regime and wage values are at its lowest in the last 35 years.

Last May 11, the Unity for Wage Increase Now! again petitioned the Department of Labor and Employment for a wage increase. They submitted the petition after a consultation where 100 worker’s representatives met in the National Cathedral of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente in Manila City.

On March 17, they protested in front of Congress during a hearing on enacting a national minimum wage.


Women’s Day

The 105th International Wo-men’s Day last March 8 served as occasion for women to vent their contempt of the Duterte regime amid rising prices. Gabriela members spearheaded women’s rallies in Metro Manila, Baguio City, Cavite, Naga City and Davao City to mark the day.

Gabriela’s Joms Salvador likened Rodrigo Duterte’s inutility in stemming successive price increases to “a man battering a woman without let-up until he kills her.” From Mendiola, the protesters marched to Liwasang Bonifacio, both in Manila City.