Legislated wage hike will not ease E-VAT burden

GMA should not take the labor sector for fools. Her recent pronouncement calling for legislated wage hike is nothing but a propaganda ploy to dampen the growing anger of workers. We dare Malacanang to prove us wrong!

Floating the idea of a legislated wage hike does not take away the impact of the expanded value added tax away from workers' pockets. It is a consuelo de bobo, a pathetic attempt to stem off the undeniable disgust among the general public with her administration. While the markets rejoice over the implementation of the E-VAT, Malacañang should not herald this as a victory for the poor. Somewhere along the way the additional collections generated form the E-VAT will surely be lost to corruption and graft, and leakages in the tax collection system that have remained unnoticed and unresolved.

The stock market is up, investors are rejoicing at the prospect of the E-VAT solving the fiscal deficit. But the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) warns government that the problem goes way deeper than Malacañang would have the public believe. For as long as this government continues to pay for behest loans while continuing to stock up debt in order to augment its spending, while its renevue-collecting agencies remain mired in corruption, whatever collections gained from the E-VAT will not solve the fiscal crisis.

There is absolutely no need for GMA to make empty promises like a legislated wage hike to workers since workers are under no illusion whatsoever that the "reasonable" hike she has directed Congress to enact will be enough to cushion the impact of her onerous economic policies of which the EVAT is the centerpiece.

The APL demands that the E-VAT be repealed, that the financial agencies be reformed, that Arroyo finally subject herself to public scrutiny and the process of truth-seeking because the economy can only put up so much of a pretense of robust growth before the continuing political crisis undermines it.

The APL reiterates its stand that a legislated wage hike is only the beginning of addressing workers' woes. We continue to press for our calls: for an industry-level wage determination, the abolition of the ineffective Regional Wage Boards and the incompetent National Labor Relations Commission, among others.

Possibilities which we realize are only possible with the ouster of GMA and the replacement of her administration with a government that will truly look after the interests of workers and not dangle a barya baryang pangako in the hope that workers will shut up and put up with her bungled management of the economy.