PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should state that wage hikes must continue to be done at regional level during next week’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), the chief of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) and Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) said.
This is part of the private sector’s SONA wishlist that also includes the passage of several legislative reforms, Philexport and ECOP President Sergio Ortiz-Luiz said in a radio interview last week.
“We want to hear the president repeat that he has already convened the regional wage boards and that wages are already being raised so that efforts to refile (legislated wage hike bills) will stop,” he said in Filipino.
The House of Representatives last month approved a P200 per day across-the-board minimum wage hike, which failed to prosper as the Senate refused to act on the measure. With a new Congress set to convene on July 28, any new legislated wage hike will have to start from scratch.
On June 30, meanwhile, a regional wage board approved a P50 per day minimum wage hike in Metro Manila, the largest to date, which took effect last Friday.
Philexport said that Ortiz-Luis’ statements was made in response to several senators having filed bills calling for legislated wage hikes.
In addition to the wage hike issue, the exporters’ group said that it wanted Marcos to prioritize several measures, including a bill proposing changes to the Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The proposed bill seeks to extend the mandatory allocation of MSME loans by banks and remove the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ regulatory cover on Small Business Corp. to allow the latter to grant more development loans to MSMEs.
Ortiz-Luis has said that the business wants the incoming Congress to institute reforms that will sufficiently fund MSME development amid ongoing initiatives to amend the Magna Carta for MSMEs.
Another bill Philexport is pushing, meanwhile, is the Customs Amnesty Bill that aims to help raise additional government revenues through voluntary disclosure without imposing new taxes, clear the Bureau of Customs of pending liquidation accounts and prevent alleged harassment of importers using these pending transactions.
Other bills it wants Congress to swiftly approve are the International Maritime Trade Competitiveness Act, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines charter amendment, National Quality Infrastructure Act, Konektadong Pinoy Bill, and the PhilPorts Act.
