SEN. Joel Villanueva urged the government to support a shift toward a legislated living wage, amid the continued suspension of a salary increase for hundreds of thousands of employees in Metro Manila.
The suspended wage order would increase the daily minimum wage in the National Capital Region from P755 to P840.
Villanueva questioned why a regional trial court issued a restraining order against the wage order, pointing to Article 126 of the Labor Code, which provides that no injunction or temporary restraining order may be issued by any court against proceedings before the National Wages and Productivity Commission or regional wage boards.
”I have been the chair[man] of the Senate Committee on Labor for a long time, but I just saw that the court has virtually violated what is exactly stated in our Labor Code,” Villanueva said during the Senate hearing on the proposed 2027 national budget.
He noted that the Senate had already adopted a resolution questioning the court’s intervention in the wage-setting process.
Villanueva said the dispute underscores the need to establish a clearer and more worker-centered basis for determining minimum wages. He cited Senate Bill 44, or the Living Wage Act, which he filed to create a mechanism for determining wages that would allow Filipino workers not only to meet their basic needs but also to live with dignity.
The senator asked the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) to address the widening wage disparity between Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
He cited workers from Bulacan who travel to the capital because of higher wages, saying the disparity creates an economic pull toward Metro Manila.
”Instead of working there, you’ll just cross the street to NCR,” Villanueva said.
Economy, Planning and Development Secretary Arsenio Balisacan maintained that wage-setting should remain under the regional tripartite wage boards, which consider differences in economic conditions across regions.
Balisacan noted that wage increases in the NCR have outpaced inflation in recent years. Villanueva, however, said that the same trend does not necessarily apply to workers outside the capital, where wages remain low relative to the rising cost of living.
Balisacan opposed adopting a single nationwide minimum wage, citing the need to balance workers’ earnings with employment opportunities, job quality and the country’s ability to attract investments.
Villanueva said his proposal was not necessarily for a uniform national wage but for a change in the benchmark used by regional wage boards, with a living wage serving as the guiding standard.
”It is important that we unite in the direction of the conversation about the living wage, because it is stated in our Constitution,” he said, referring to the 1987 Constitution’s guarantee of workers’ rights to a living wage.
