High time to push back

and called for broadening alliances with like-minded countries in light of these increasing incidents of blatant disrespect to Philippine sovereignty and international law.

The cash-for-work TUPAD program will grant ₱100 million worth of salaries to qualifi ed benefi ciaries.

The agency will also release around ₱50 million for livelihood assistance to workers nationwide.

IT’S always nice to write about something good.

Times like these, it comes as a breath of fresh air to know that Boracay is back in business. I spent most of the past week in Boracay, together with some members of the family and a European guest, wondering before we left Manila how the fabled tourist island now fares.

The last time I went there was a quick visit for the wedding of Ren-ren Cayetano and his bride at the Shangri-la in 2016.

The year after, Pres. Duterte closed the island to visitors to do urgent rehabilitation, as the coliform levels in the main beach had increased to dangerous proportions.

The sewage water treatment facility which the Philippine Tourism Authority completed during my watch in Pres. Estrada’s time (though formally inaugurated under Pres. GMA) needed upgrading of the sewer pipes because the island’s normal carrying capacity had been breached by so many establishments, in a helter-skelter, absolutely un-planned “development.”

That draconian decision which I initially criticized produced many discoveries, the most blatant violation being the Malay government’s unbridled spree of permits even if the hotel or resort failed to connect to the now Ayala-managed water treatment facility.

DOLE, however, appears in no hurry to grant wage increases at this time, and says the working class will have to wait for the process already in place to determine whether there is a need to revise the existing minimum wages in different parts of the country.

Wage boards can only act on wage petitions a year after the last wage order.

The labor groups want a ₱530 peso increase in the minimum wage in Metro Manila.

The current minimum wage of workers in the National Capital Region is at ₱570. The think tank IBON Foundation, however, believes the family living wage in NCR is ₱1,161 per day.

In other words, there’s a wage gap of 50.9 percent or ₱591.

At present, there are 58 bills in the House of Representatives and 21 in the Senate seeking to increase the wages and salaries of workers and employees both in the public and private sectors.

An ordinary factory worker earning the minimum wage can barely support a family of five amid rising prices.

The trade unions are therefore justified in asking for higher wages and more benefits, and the least the government should do is to allow them to ventilate their grievances.

After all, Labor Day is a day for honoring the working class and recognizing their contributions to building the national economy.