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The DOLE’s COLA: a thirst quencher

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board of the Cordillera region issued Wage Order No. 10. The order provides for an additional cost of living allowance (COLA) of P20 per day to minimum wage earners in the region. The order took effect on June 15, 2005. Like the coca cola soft drink, the latest RTWPB COLA is a thirst quencher. For a while, it can address your thirst. That is, if you are among those covered, but not for long.

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The latest RTWPB COLA or Wage Order No. 10 is deceptive. It needs to be clarified, especially to the workers or employees in the private sector who think they are covered by the order. A question normally raised by workers is whether or not they are covered by the Wage Order and therefore entitled to the P20 per day COLA?

Theodore Delson, head of the above agency in the region, clarified to this author the answer to this question. A worker is entitled to the COLA if he is earning a minimum wage which is set in the region at P225 per day. If a worker earns more than that, he is not covered and therefore not entitled to the P20 COLA per day.

This is the first limitation of the order. It singles out minimum wage earners as the beneficiary. Thus, an employee of a private institution who receives more than the minimum wage of P225 is excluded. It is as if the minimum wage earners were the only people affected by the increase of prices of goods and commodities. This is not to say that the amount is enough. And those who earn more than the minimum wage are not affected by the price increases in fare, electricity bills, hospitalization, oil products among others. All private employees, whether receiving the minimum wage or not, are affected by this economic crisis.

Another limitation of the COLA is that it does not cover the adjustments needed for the latest oil price increases and the Expanded Value Added Tax, whose implementation was temporarily halted by the Supreme Court. This shows that Wage Order No. 10 is not enough for the wage earner to cope with the effects of the latest oil price increase and the EVAT. If this is the case, there is a need for a new COLA every after oil price increase. The Filipino life will be a cycle and the Filipino people will need to come up with an alternative from this ineffective solution, or punishment, by the government.

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The RTWPB Wage Order scheme is divisive to workers. It aims to silence the beneficiaries with the little amount that would satisfy them instead of raising their wages. It seems that the government’s concern is to remove them from the ranks of protesting workers demanding for higher wages.

The scheme is also an insult to the Filipino workers. Workers’ organizations claim that a family of six needs at least P600.00 per day to have at least a ”decent living.” Instead of supporting a legislated wage increase of P125 daily for private employees and P3,000 monthly increase for government workers, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) chose to punish the people by legislating the EVAT law. She can’t even do anything with the usual price increases of oil products.

The welfare of the people is at stake. The GMA administration has adopted policies totally against the welfare of the people. (She too has questionable mandate as she was involved in a tainted election.) This is a concrete proof of the administration’s turning its back on the people that it should serve. And the people are correct in demanding her resignation. To spare the people from the worst situation, GMA should heed the people’s call for her to resign. She must do it now. #

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