MANILA, Philippines — A fresh legal battle over Metro Manila’s ₱85 wage hike is set to unfold Thursday after the Navotas Regional Trial Court (RTC) scheduled a clarificatory hearing on a petition questioning the wage order, prompting labor groups to mount a legal defense and renew calls for a legislated ₱200 daily wage increase.
Organized labor on Wednesday vowed to oppose a fresh court challenge against the National Capital Region’s ₱85 minimum wage increase, warning that repeated lawsuits against wage orders threaten not only the latest pay hike but the entire wage determination system in the country.
The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and other affiliates of Nagkaisa Labor Coalition (Nagkaisa) stand came after Branch 287 of the Navotas RTC set a clarificatory hearing on Aug. 6, 2026 for a petition for declaratory relief filed by the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations, Inc. (APFFI) against the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-NCR (RTWPB-NCR) and the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
In an order dated Aug. 3, Presiding Judge Romana M. Lindayag Del Rosario scheduled the hearing after the petitioner submitted its compliance with the court’s directives. The proceedings will be conducted via videoconference in accordance with Supreme Court guidelines.
Unlike the proceedings before the Pasig RTC—which issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the implementation of Wage Order NCR-27—the Navotas court first called for a clarificatory hearing before acting on the petition.
The FFW and other NAGKAISA affiliates said they would formally participate in the proceedings, arguing that the case extended far beyond the interests of a single employer or industry.
“This is no longer just about the ₱85 wage increase,” the coalition said. “It is about whether every future wage increase can be frozen by the next lawsuit. If employers can simply bypass the wage boards and run to different Regional Trial Courts, the country’s wage-fixing system becomes meaningless.”
Calling the latest petition “another attack on workers’ lawful wage gains,” NAGKAISA maintained that the RTC has no jurisdiction over the dispute and urged the court to dismiss the case, citing Article 126 of the Labor Code and jurisprudence, including Buenaflor vs Ramirez.
The coalition said the Navotas court’s decision to hold a clarificatory hearing at least gives workers an opportunity to be heard—a chance they said was lacking in the earlier Pasig proceedings. It added that wage orders affected more than three million workers in Metro Manila, making transparency and labor participation essential.
NAGKAISA stressed that the ₱85 wage increase was not arbitrarily imposed but was approved by the RTWPB after months of consultations among labor, employers, and government representatives, as well as a review of prevailing economic conditions.
