House: Senate killed P200 wage hike bill
The promise of passing a historic measure to raise the long-stagnant wages of workers was quashed anew after the 19th Congress adjourned without a reconciled version from both the Senate and House of Representatives.
On Wednesday, the House adjourned sine die to give way to the incoming 20th Congress without ratifying House Bill (HB) No. 11376 and Senate Bill (SB) No. 2534, essentially killing both bills.
SB 2534, which was passed on third reading in February 2024, proposes a P100 increase in wages for private sector employees. It is slightly lower compared to HB No. 11376 which pushes for a P200 wage hike. It was approved on third reading last week.
Had both chambers managed to reconcile their versions, this could have ended the 36-year drought on legislated wage hikes and help close the gap between stagnant wages and the rising cost of living.
The House, however, blamed the Senate for supposedly “refusing to convene” a bicameral conference committee on the legislated wage hike bill.
“Let’s not sugarcoat it— the Senate killed the P200 wage hike bill,” House spokesperson Princess Abante said. “Last night was the final session of the 19th Congress. No bicam. No compromise. No wage hike. And the reason is simple: The Senate refuses to talk to us. They want us to simply accept their version.”
She was referring to the fact that the Senate, through Sen. Joel Villanueva, had asked the House to simply adopt SB 2534 to fast-track the bicameral deliberations and allow the bill to be signed by President Marcos before the end of the 19th Congress.
But Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles, chair of the House committee on labor and employment, rejected Villanueva’s appeal, saying they preferred a deliberative bicameral process rather than be “bamboozled into accepting the Senate version wholesale.”
Abante said that on the last day of the 19th Congress, June 11, the House bicameral conferees “had been fully prepared to meet and reconcile the differing versions of the bill.”
Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas, one of the panelists, also blamed the Senate’s inaction for the death of the wage hike bill and said the failure to ratify it “stalls what could have been a long-awaited relief for millions of Filipino workers.”
Labor groups react
Labor groups, for their part, denounced the “killing” of the wage hike bills which they attributed to the government’s indifference to their plight and the lack of political will.
“This only proves that the current government and the current ruling system would not serve the people. This is unacceptable. This is unforgivable. There will be a reckoning,” Kilusang Mayo Uno secretary general Jerome Adonis said in a statement on Thursday.
In a separate statement, Federation of Free Workers president and Nagkaisa labor coalition chair Sonny Matula said that they were all set to accept the Senate’s version because they recognized that Congress was running out of time to reconcile the two bills.
“But the House dribbled and dribbled it until time ran out,” Matula said.
He recalled that before the May 12 midterm elections, politicians had promised to pass a wage hike bill. But after the polls, lawmakers changed their tune, saying such a proposed law was not a priority measure.
“We were used to get votes, we were abandoned after they got what they wanted,” Matula claimed.
For the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, “the administration missed out on making great history—wage legislation being the last hope to uplift millions of lives of the overworked and underpaid after 36 long punishing years of a broken wage-setting system.” —WITH A REPORT FROM JEROME ANING
