In a recent article published in Philippine Star, Juan Antoinio Perez III, the executive director of the Commission on Population and Development (PopCom), claimed that "most Filipinos need to have two to three jobs to steer clear of poverty."
What the country has right now is minimum wage, which with the
recent wage hike of 33 pesos that will take effect this June in the NCR, brought the daily minimum wage to 570 pesos. But that's still not enough what with all the price increases brought about by inflation and higher gas prices.
What we need is a living wage that can catch up with the cost of living wherever you are in the country. Currently, the Philippine Statistics Office pegged 12,000 pesos per month as the poverty threshold. Even with the new minimum wage of 570/day, at 20 working days per month, you only get Php11,400--which is 600 pesos short of the poverty threshold. How can one live decently with that?
If a Filipino needs to work 2-3 jobs to make sure one has enough to live, how else can he or she fit that second job if she's already working 40 hours per week--not counting the minimum of 2 hours each way that's eaten up by commuting? There's simply not hours.
Even considering my own situation, where I work "part time" in the education sector, the hours we are paid for are only for the time we spend "actively" doing our job--i.e., time spent in contact with students. The time used to prepare for said session, and the huge amount of time an educator spends assessing student outputs, plus the committee work one is expected to do, are hours NOT PAID AT ALL.
We work on a contractual basis, and are on a "No Work, No Pay" situation. Earlier in the year, when the Omicron surge took place, classes were suspended, the term lengthened to practically half a year, and yet we were only paid for the original 13-14 week term for which we were originally contracted. Is it fair? No. But that's the working situation in the Philippines now.
To earn more, part timers work at 2 or 3 schools. But because of various elements--K-12, low enrollment due to the pandemic, etc--it's simply not possible to work more than 1 job at a time.
And at this rate, my sector is still considered "privileged" as opposed to those doing hard physical labor. But really, we're living precariously.
This is why we need a leader who will craft policies that can make life better for ALL CITIZENS. A better life for all. Not just for those close to them. With the results of the recent elections, it's really just hard to imagine that it would happen. Our task for the next six years is to make sure our head is above (poverty) water.
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Image by Jilson Tiu)
