Celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and International Workers’ Day
Through Legislating a Substantial Wage Increase
May 1, 2012

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and the International Workers’ Day on May 1, we remember Blessed John Paul II who was beatified last year on the same day; and who urged everyone to uphold the principle of the “priority of labor over capital”. Blessed John Paul II, who was himself a worker, emphasized “the primacy of the human person in the production process, the primacy of people over things” (cf. Laborem Exercens, 12).

We are saddened, however, that the said Catholic teaching is not well-received in our country, the cradle of Christianity in Asia. We witness that the majority of our people continue to suffer constant increases in the prices of petroleum products, fare, basic commodities and other daily needs. As there has been no substantial increase in their wages, the real value of their wages plunges. The gap between their minimum wages and the prices of commodities continues to grow.

We are alarmed of the following findings of recent surveys:
– In an August 2011 survey by Swiss firm UBS, it was learned that Manila has the second lowest wage levels and third lowest purchasing power in the world.
– An Ibon Foundation study shows that for the period 2001-2011, wages increased by 45 per cent while prices increased by 62 percent.
– A Social Weather Station (SWS) survey shows that hunger incidence in the country went up to 22.5 percent at the end of 2011.

Indeed, our impoverished people must be given relief; and a legislated substantial wage increase is one immediate measure which will address our workers’ misery.

We also take note of studies by independent research institutions that:
-Employers in the Philippines can afford a substantial wage hike if only they accept a cut in their considerable profits. The total cost of the proposed wage hike of P125 will only be PhP194.9 billion. When subtracted from total profits, this will still leave establishments with PhP1,434.6 billion in profits, which is only a 12% cut in their profits. In 2009, all the establishments in the country of all employment sizes had combined profits of PhP1,629.5 billion and 3.94 million employees (2009 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) of the National Statistics Office).
– Despite the onset of the global crisis, the combined net income of top 1,000 corporations in 2010 nearly doubled the PhP416 billion net income in 2008, which affirms their ability to absorb a significant wage hike.
– The transfer of money from rich to poor households will increase aggregate demand and stimulate the economy.

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2012 Lenten Message reminded us, that the Sacred Scripture warns that our hearts can become hardened by a “spiritual anaesthesia” which numbs us to the suffering of others. In his encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, he also said that we must be just first, before we can be charitable. Being charitable is giving “what is mine to the other”, while being just is giving the other what is due to him (cf. Caritas in Veritate, 6). Loving our brothers and sisters, the workers, means being just to them by upholding their rights as human persons, who are also God’s co-creator. We affirm that, indeed, it is high time for high-income households to lend a hand to low-income households who are so deprived of basic necessities.

Hence, as a fitting way to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and the International Workers’ Day on May 1, we urge the government legislators to heed the call for a legislated substantial wage increase; for all sectors concerned to show love and justness especially to those who are hungry and in need; for all of us to uphold the dignity of labor through the defense of workers’ rights.

As Christ lives,

BISHOP GERARDO ALMINAZA, D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop of Jaro/ Head Convenor of the Visayas Clergy Discernment Group (VCDG)

VISAYAS CLERGY DISCERNMENT GROUP
E-Mail Address: visayasclergydiscernment@yahoo.com · Tel. No. 033-3291625

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