Ms.

Judge, speaker from the affirmative side, ladies and gentlemen, good
afternoon.
I'm sorry but the said bill will not be beneficial to those who need it but might even
worsen the quality of life of every Filipino consumer.
your honor, two points as to why the 100 increase in minimum wage should not be
enacted
First, The additional 100 increase in the minimum wage will only worsen the
effect of inflation
According to the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. food prices
might increase if the legislated across-the-board P100 wage hike pushes through,
as it would drive up production costs.
Consumers would ultimately shoulder the price burden as the increase in
production costs would just be passed on across the value chain and when you
increase the cost of inputs, you will also raise the price of your goods to recoup or
cover the additional costs you incurred
Even the Foundation of Economic Freedom said the wage increase will result in
higher prices of goods, as additional across-the-board wage increases will push
companies to charge higher prices.
Moreover the subsequent wage-price spiral will trigger an erosion of the people’s
purchasing power, causing widespread demands for future rounds of wage hikes
As we all know, the principles of demand and supply state that if a product has
high demand and low supply, the price will increase. Any wage increase that
occurs will also increase the money supply for consumers. Consumers will have
more spending power with a higher money supply, as a result the demand for
goods will increase, but the Philippines is already struggling with the primary
needs of regular filipino which is production from agriculture. In a paper published
a few years ago, Roehlano Briones, a senior fellow at the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies, said that the number of workers in agriculture “has been
declining both in relative and absolute terms up to 2019. Briones explained that
population growth, as well as diminishing farm size and declining incomes in
agriculture, have incentivized the “shift out of agriculture and lowered the
country's production. Lower production means lower supply, and lower supply
while having higher demand will inevitably lead to an increase in inflation.
More so, according to National Economic and Development Authority Secretary
Arsenio Balisacan, any proposed PHP100 wage hike would negatively impact
inflation prospects. He added that our GDP estimate shows that GDP growth could
be hit negatively, so in simple terms any other additional increase in the minimum
wage will only increase demands, therefore worsening the effect of inflation.
Second point is that The workers who need it the most will not even benefit
from the bill
In summary, Republic Act No. 9178 is called the Barangay Micro Business
Enterprises (BMBEs) Act of 2002.
The BMBEs shall be exempt from the coverage of the Minimum Wage Law. So all
employees of microenterprises are not included in the additional 100 peso wage
increase, and according to PCCI president Enunina Mangio, the 100 peso wage
hike will only benefit 5 million workers in the formal sector, leaving behind the 47
million Filipinos working in the informal sector.
In addition, if we have the legislated wage increase, only 10–16 percent of the 47
million Filipino workers will benefit. And the other 84 percent will be left behind.
It includes are the farmers, fishermen, and employees of microenterprises that are
thought to benefit from the bill. As I remember in Section 2 of the declaration of
policy, this bill aims to alleviate the living conditions of "ordinary" Filipinos and
improve the quality of life, particularly for the working class, but it's seems doing
the opposite. As the data presented by PSA shows, 34 percent of the working class
will not receive an additional increase in their daily wage as they are from the
informal sector, and only 5 million out of 47 million will benefit as they are from
the formal sector. And as stated in the "laging handa public briefing" by ECOP
President Sergio Ortiz-Luiz, wage hikes could trigger higher prices of
commodities, which those in the informal sector would not be able to afford as
they are not included in the additional P100 minimum wage hike bill.
In short, “ordinary” Filipinos from the said bill, like farmers, fishermen, and local
employees who're earning a lower wage in average than those who are in the
formal sector, are not even included in the bill.