MANILA, Philippines — Kamanggagawa Party-list Rep. Elijah “Eli” San Fernando on Thursday slammed the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) after Secretary Francis Tolentino and National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) officials failed to appear at a closed-door wage meeting at The Manila Hotel, where labor groups sought to challenge Wage Order No. 28.
San Fernando and the National Wage Coalition (NWC) went to the hotel to serve their position paper and demand the implementation of Wage Order No. 27, which provides an P85 daily wage increase for minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region.
The labor groups accused DOLE of holding secretive proceedings to justify Wage Order No. 28, which reduced the increase to P60 and, according to San Fernando, effectively denied workers backpay that had accrued since July 25.
“DOLE has become so shameful that it is now operating in secret, and then its officials would not even show up. Why is a meeting about workers’ wages being held in secret? And why hold it in a five-star hotel while workers are struggling? It is completely out of touch,” San Fernando said.
He called the situation unacceptable and warned that workers would continue pursuing the labor agency if it failed to fulfill its mandate.
“If the DOLE secretary himself is too cowardly to face workers and fulfill the mandate of his agency, then Secretary Tolentino should resign. Secretary Tolentino, resign,” San Fernando said.
San Fernando maintained that Wage Order No. 27 remains valid and that DOLE’s own public declarations on July 25 confirmed the start of its implementation.
He accused DOLE of using Wage Order No. 28 to claim that the earlier order never took effect and avoid paying what he estimated at P2,880 in backpay to each minimum wage earner covered by the order.
The NWC is demanding that DOLE immediately implement the P85 increase, recognize backpay due from July 25, rectify provisions in Wage Order No. 28 stating that Wage Order No. 27 never took effect, and conduct transparent and public wage-setting proceedings.
San Fernando said Kamanggagawa Party-list would pursue legislative investigations and scrutinize the proposed budgets of DOLE and the NWPC over what he described as the agencies’ failure to protect workers.
He warned that the Manila Hotel protest would be followed by further mobilizations in workplaces and government agencies until workers secure the full P85 wage increase.
