The country?s working class has found an ally in Rep. Manny Pacquiao in their never ending quest for a P125 across-the-board legislated nationwide wage hike.
Pacquiao, whose working class origin has been glossed a million times over by his phenomenal march to richness, threw his support to a proposed bill filed by progressive legislators at the House of Representatives.
The last nationally-legislated wage hike was in 1989 after workers all over the country launched simultaneous protests actions to press for a P25 daily wage hike.
The government of then President Corazon Aquino gave in and Congress passed a law mandating a P22 across the board increase for all workers nationwide.
It was the last of its kind as almost simultaneous with it was the passage of the Herrera Law or Republic Act 6715 (New Labor Code). The law took away from Congress the power to legislate wage hikes and passed them along to the regional tripartite and wage productivity boards (RTWPBs).
The Herrera Law would eventually weaken the then burgeoning labor movement in the country. That is of course a different story.
The workers, led by the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), first put across the P125 wage hike (US$2.90) demand in 1999 led by the late Crispin ?Ka Bel? Beltran during the Estrada administration who was himself a member of the House of Representative.
It never went past the plenary session of the House of Representative. Since then, progressive legislators has been re-filing the same bill even as RTWPBs all over the country have issued several wage hikes that were way behind the rising costs of living.
According to studies, a family of five needs to earn P573 (US$13.25) a day to meet its daily basic needs and P1,100 to live decently. Both figures are way beyond the P426 (US$9.85) minimum daily wage in Metro Manila and P260 (US$6) in Pacquiao?s home region in Southcentral Mindanao.
That Pacquiao opted to announce his support at the national office of KMU speaks of his genuine solidarity to his class origin.
Without mincing many words, Pacquiao said all protestations from employers and capitalist are mere alibis ? palusot as he empathically said.
KMU national chair Elmer ?Bong? Labog said they hope Pacquiao?s unequivocal support to the bill will be translated into a popular vote in both chambers of Philippine Congress.
Pacquiao may no longer belong to the working class that he once was a member but he knows how it is to grow callous in his hands as a construction worker and the pangs of hunger.
His support to the proposed bill seeking across the board wage increase for worker nationwide my not be ideologically ground and may be viewed as political posturing. But Pacquiao knows better. It came deep from his heart.
