By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty. — Jon Corzine

Last November 20, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) chief Rosalinda Baldoz denied the the workers demand for an addition to their minimum wage. According to Baldoz, they already ordered an increase to the cost of living allowance (COLA) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and smaller amounts to the workers in the provinces.

The lady also said that it is not the right time to give a raise. Her opinion was brutal like pouring vinegar, salt or calamansi juice on an open wound.

And when did the business owners, the mall owners, the greedy oil capitalists say that it is not time to make a price hike because the poor people, like the low wage workers can not bear it?

Months passed since the government thought of approving a pegged increase on the COLA of the workers, the standard or actual cost of living has already reached P998 in NCR for a family of six. Here in the Cordillera, cost of living is also already reaching P900 a day. And the minimum wage is only P257 a day, that means the worker is short by more than 600 a day.

The purchasing power of the peso is no match to the regular shooting up of prices of goods and other commodities as well as priced government services. Time will come that a hundred peso is only good for buying one pack of noodles and a half kilo rice. More and more Filipinos can no longer afford to eat at least two times a day. If hunger can kill a person immediately, instead of having to first suffer the lingering pain from hunger or that feeling of hopelessly gasping for air to slowly die with eyes wide open.

Maybe if the people in these agencies created by the taxes of the Filipinos and mandated to serve the interests of the people, do what they are supposed to do instead of serving the greedy interests of capital, then maybe life will be easier. When the people who gave their trust to the man who railroads his own so-called straight path realize that they made a big mistake and join the rest of the people to change the system, then it is a dream come true.

As the rest of the peoples of the world follow the examples of the “occupy” mass actions in different parts of the globe, the number of workers aspiring for a real change grows.

At present, the Filipino workers through their respective labor organizations and associations and other manifestations of unity continue to fight for their democratic rights. Until the day will come that true labor representatives seat at the labor department and say, “it is time to make the life of the people better everyday. # nordis.net