TACLOBAN CITY — House Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan has urged regional wage boards to promptly act on pending wage petitions, warning that minimum wage earners can no longer endure prolonged delays in the face of rising living costs.
Libanan said six remaining regions are expected to issue new minimum wage increase orders before yearend, stressing that workers need immediate relief amid sustained price hikes.
“We are counting on the six remaining regional wage boards to promptly raise pay rates and give workers the immediate relief they deserve amid the continuing surge in the cost of living,” Libanan said, adding that “every week of delay means further erosion of workers’ purchasing power.”
As of November 3, 11 of the country’s 17 regional wage boards have issued new wage orders this year, according to the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
One of the remaining regions which have yet to release wage adjustments includes the wage board in Eastern Visayas. The other wage boards are from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), MIMAROPA (Region IV-B), Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX), Northern Mindanao (Region X), and Caraga (Region XIII).
The most recent increase was granted by the Western Visayas wage board on October 23, approving a P40 adjustment that raises the regional minimum wage to P550 effective November 19.
Under the Labor Code, wage boards may initiate a review and increase wages even without a petition but are limited to issuing only one wage order every 12 months.
Libanan emphasized that higher wages are vital to both fairness and economic recovery. He said wage erosion has weakened household spending, dragging down national growth.
Boosting consumption is “essential if we want to strengthen demand for goods and services, accelerate economic growth, and spur job creation in the months ahead,” he said.
A recent Pulse Asia survey (Sept. 27–30) found that increasing workers’ pay ranked third among urgent national concerns, following inflation control and anti-corruption. The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier reported that the country’s GDP grew by 4.0 percent in the third quarter of 2025 — slower than the 5.5 percent growth in the previous quarter, partly due to weakening consumer spending.
(LIZBETH ANN A.ABELLA)
