Guico Files Uniform Min. Wage Bill

SOLONS WANT RTWPB REVOKES

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A Pangasinan congressman filed a bill that will revoke the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) and instead replace it with a general minimum wage daily rate all over the country.
Fifth District Representative Ramon V. Guico, III blames the traffic congestion and the swelling numbers of informal settlers in the National Capital Region because of the superior minimum wage rate offered by companies there compared to the other regions in the country that have varied daily rates.
“Our countrymen are after the higher daily wage thus the influx of migration to the metropolis,” the lawmaker, who was co-sponsored by Cagayan Third District Rep. Joseph Lara, said.
Because of the proposed bill on the equity of the wages, Guico explained that Filipino workers will feel they are given self- importance by the government because of their contribution to the national and local economy.

Pangasinan Fifth District Rep. Ramon "Mon-Mon" Guico, III

It is high time, Guico continued, that a general minimum wage law will be implemented. He and Lara said their bill was a response to Senator  Christopher “Bong” Go exhortation to the Filipinos of the Balik-Probinsiya-Program (Return to the Province Program) to decongest the national capital of its burgeoning numbers of workers.

President Rodrigo Duterted issued recently an order institutionalizing Go's Balik Probinsya Project after he and other officials promote it in public addresses mainly about the coronavirus.
Executive Order No 114, institutionalizing the "Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa" Program, was signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on May 6.
Presently, the minimum daily wage in the National Capital Region is  ₱537.00 for the non-agricultural worker while ₱500.00 a day for each of those in the agricultural sector.
Daily wage for each of the workers at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), considered the economically poorest region, is P300 for the non-agricultural and P290 for agricultural.