Employees, teachers, and health workers in the public sector gathered in a protest on July 11 in Quezon City to call on the Marcos regime for higher wages and job security. They held the action a few weeks before Ferdinand Marcos’s fourth state of the nation address to emphasize their long-standing demands.

All Government Employees Unity, composed of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage), Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), led the protest. The group Kawani Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon (Kalakon) also attended and joined the action.

Their main demand is for the state to address the declining quality of life of employees amid rising inflation. “The wage increase implemented through Executive Order No. 64 from Malacañang last year is not enough,” Courage’s Manny Baclagon said.

Under EO64, a meager ₱530 was added to the Salary Grade 1 Step 1 employee’s pay, or only ₱26 per day. The EO also granted a ₱7,000 medical allowance to qualified employees.

Not only is the increase very low, it will be given in four tranches starting in 2024 and ending in 2027. Even after the fourth tranche, the lowest salary employees will receive only ₱15,208 per month.

“EO 64 does not raise the national minimum wage of government employees to a sufficient level,” said Baclagon. Courage has long called for a minimum monthly salary of ₱36,000 for employees and their family to live decently.

EO64 also did not increase the salary of workers in government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and Job Order/Contract of Service (JOCOS) workers. “It did not address the income gap of workers in local government, and it did not raise to a more decent level the starting salary of public school teachers and nurses, among others,” Baclagon added.

According to Courage, instead of a decent wage increase, the Marcos regime is set to implement a program of rightsizing the bureaucracy, which is one of its main legislative proposals. The regime promotes the proposal of restructuring to improve an agency’s operations, which pushes for mass layoffs among JOCOS employees.

Kalakon said that the Marcos regime must treat employees humanely because they endure hardship to provide proper public service. “It must end contractualization among employees and must not allow policies that will destroy their livelihoods,” the group said.

Meanwhile, the groups denounced the increase this year in funds for confidential expenses and other funds that are vulnerable to corruption and kickbacks. They said that these funds will likely continue to rise in the coming years, while funding for essential social services such as health and education decreases.