P22 COLA for Metro Manila
METRO MANILA minimum wage earners can look forward to higher take-home pay after the government yesterday announced adjustments to help workers cope with soaring prices.A P22 cost of living allowance (COLA) will be added to the metropolis’ current floor wage of P367-404, bringing the range to P389-426. Labor department officials described it as a "win-win" solution for workers who petitioned for a P75 increase, employers worried about their capacity to pay and monetary authorities concerned about inflation. The adjustment, which could take effect before the end of the month, is expected to set the pace by which minimum wages in other regions will be increased this year. A COLA would limit employers’ expenses as the stipend is not included in computing benefits such as overtime and 13th-month pay. The adjustment also falls below the P25 the central bank said was the limit daily minimum wages could be increased without adding to inflationary pressures. "We could publish [the wage order] by Wednesday (May 11) at the earliest and it could take effect by May 26," said Raymundo G. Agravante, chairman of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) and director of the Labor department’s Metro Manila office. Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz said the P22 COLA would benefit some three million minimum wage earners. Another 3.7 million workers could also receive pay adjustments as companies move to address wage distortions, she added. "[T]he board considered the needs of workers to cope with high commodity prices, on the one hand, and the employers’ capacity to pay given high fuel-related production costs and the [fact that the] great majority of enterprises in the region ... are micro and small enterprises," Ms. Baldoz said. "The board also ascertained that the new COLA will only have a minimum impact on inflation to guarantee that the objective of helping workers cope with high prices while sustaining the capacity of employers to pay the new minimum wage won’t be defeated." Mr. Agravante claimed that the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP), which has representatives in the Metro Manila wage board, had agreed with the P22 increase despite declaring they could only afford a P13.35 per day COLA. "The P13.35 that ECoP is saying is based on inflation figures in March. With a 4.6% inflation figure in April, a P20 provision is reasonable. The P2 is provided as compensation for May and June," he said. ECoP officials were not immediately available for comment. But the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which had filed for a P75 increase and is also represented in the wage board, said it was disappointed. "The TUCP condemns the decision of the RTWPB for a measly wage increase of P22 in the form of COLA," spokesman Rafael E. Mapalo said in a statement. Wage hike deliberations had been fast-tracked by the declaration of a "supervening condition." Last May 1, President Benigno S.C. Aquino III also ordered all regional wage boards to speed up discussions given food and fuel price increases. The Metro Manila board in April ruled that extraordinary fuel price hikes warranted an adjustment less than 12 months from the last wage increase. Minimum wages in the metropolis were last raised in June 2010 and the adjustment took effect a month later. -- from a report by N. R. Melican
ASEAN struggles for credibility as its members feud
JAKARTA -- It was supposed to be a summit to advance ASEAN’s community-building goals, but as Southeast Asian leaders sat down in Indonesia at the weekend, the cracks began to show.
Minutes into the meeting on Saturday at Jakarta’s swanky convention center, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen launched into a tirade against Thailand over a border conflict which has cost 18 lives since February. The row hijacked the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and fuelled concern that such distractions are hurting the credibility of the groups’s plans to create a fully integrated community by 2015. "When you have a feud in the family, especially when fighting can be heard outside the house, it is very embarrassing to the neighbors," a regional diplomat said. Mediation efforts by current ASEAN chair Indonesia have so far yielded few concessions that could lead to a lasting ceasefire and negotiated political solution between the warring neighbors. Eighteen people have been killed and 85,000 temporarily displaced in weeks of clashes over ownership of a small patch of territory surrounding an 11th-century Khmer temple. The temple itself belongs to Cambodia. International pressure on ASEAN is also expected to mount after Myanmar announced it wants to chair the group in 2014 despite allegations of ongoing human rights abuses and doubts over democratic reforms, including an election last year that was widely regarded as a sham. "We cannot afford to put our community building efforts in jeopardy by failing to respond to such bilateral conflicts," Philippine President Benigno S. C. Aquino III said at the meeting, according to a copy of his speech seen by AFP. "We call on both countries to move forward in the interest of the region’s peace and stability. Interregional skirmishes do not bode well for ... ASEAN’s peace and stability or its credibility in the international community." Mr. Aquino also called for the release of remaining political prisoners in Myanmar, saying this will be a "concrete step" in its reform process. ASEAN wants to be the driver of future debates about security and economic challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, but Ernest Bower, a US-based Southeast Asia specialist, said there were doubts it was up to the challenge. "The key issue is ASEAN credibility-it must move toward being more specific about how it will define whether it is achieving its self-defined goals for regional economic, social-cultural and political security integration," Mr. Bower, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told AFP. "General goals are already defined, it needs to now focus on clear definable accomplishments in order to convince its business leaders and citizens that policy will be changed to move toward genuine progress toward these goals." Among others, ASEAN should obtain a ceasefire and peace process from Thailand and Cambodia and "define a baseline criteria" for Myanmar to meet before takes over chairmanship, Mr. Bower said. It must also agree on a "pro-active and comprehensive" agenda for the East Asia Summit (EAS) that ASEAN will host in November, he added. The East Asia Summit will be attended by the Russian and US leaders for the first time since their entry into the forum last year. With China and Japan also members, the ASEAN-driven EAS has become a heavyweight on the regional diplomatic stage. Diplomatic sources say Beijing is against putting maritime security on the agenda because it wants to avoid US meddling in South China Sea territorial disputes. ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have partial claims on the Spratlys, an island-chain in the South China Sea which is being claimed in whole by China. Taiwan is the sixth claimant. The group’s end-of-summit statement said the EAS would discuss economic and strategic issues but made no direct reference to maritime security being on the agenda. -- AFP
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