It will entail at least P42,000 a month for a family of five to live decently, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority Director General Ernesto Pernia said on Thursday.
The Neda chief came up with his estimate after the agency drew criticisms from labor groups and lawmakers—who also asked President Duterte to fire the agency’s top officials for using P10,000 to illustrate the cost of living of a typical Filipino family of five.
It was Neda Usec. Rosemarie Edillon who used the amount as a hypothetical figure, an example, in computing the impact of inflation—which in May reached 4.6 percent—on the consumption of a family of five.
“I think roughly P42,000 a month would be a more decent income, at least to live above the poverty line,” Pernia told GMA News Online.
But the Partido Manggagawa said a family of five in the National Capital Region needs closer to P39,000 monthly to live decently as of May 2018.
“Neda’s assessment is utterly erroneous. Just to cite one flaw. Neda alleges that P959 out of the P10,000 is allotted for rice. Such a budget can only buy 30 kilos of P32 NFA rice—which is hard to find in the market—for one month or 1 kilo per day to be shared by five people. This translates to just one cup [200g] per person per day or around 250 calories, far below the recommended daily calorie intake of 1,500-2,000. P10,000 means malnourished and stunted workers and children,” said Rene Magtubo, PM national chairman.
In PM’s own study, P3,150 monthly is needed to buy daily 2.5 kilos of the cheapest commercial rice at P42. Of the P39,000 monthly budget, 44 percent is earmarked for food and 56 percent is for non-food items. Utilities like electricity, water, and cooking gas make up 8 percent, house rent 15 percent, transportation expenses, 11 percent and education needs, 13 percent of the total budget.
“Our cost of living study is, in fact, an underestimation as it does not provide for leisure and recreation, savings or social security which should comprise 10 percent as a standard or for a house help which is a necessity if the government insists that both parents must work to sustain the family,” Magtubo said.
PM is calling for a substantial wage hike and national minimum wage as promised by President Duterte. The group is supporting pending bills calling for a national minimum wage of P750 to P800.
“The focus now is on worsening inflation that has eroded workers nominal wages,” Magtubo said. “But hardly noticed is growing inequality due to the stagnation of real wages while productivity is booming. From 2001 to 2016, labor productivity grew by at least 50 percent, yet the real wages did not grow at all. Workers have been denied their fair share in the fruits of production.”
The Neda chief, however, said he was not endorsing a minimum wage of P42,000.
“Note that a legislated minimum wage increase not well studied could only result in even higher inflation [wage-price spiral] layoffs, business closures,” he said.
Senator Grace Poe also scored the Neda family budget, describing it as a “throwback estimate” that might have been good 15 years ago.
“It is fake news,” said Poe, chairman of the Senate committee on public services.
She said only an economist who has been living under a rock will believe that a family of five can live decently on P334 a day.
That amount, she said, will perhaps be enough if the family will go on a forced diet, live off the grid in a lean-to, and forego schooling, among other deprivations.
She said government officials who cling to the unrealistic estimate could prove their thesis by staging a reality show ala Survivor, where they would live on a budget of P10,000 a month.
Two opposition lawmakers pushed for the proposed P750 legislated wage increase for private workers to help them cope with the rising cost of living.
At the same time, Representatives Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna and Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis also lamented the fact that employers at times not only pay low wages but also make life miserable for workers by delaying payment of their salaries.
Zarate said the P750 wage hike was appropriate with the admission of Neda chief Pernia that a family of five needs at least P42,000 to “live comfortably.”
The proposed P750 across-the-board wage hike was contained in House Bill 7787 filed by Zarate and his fellow members of the Makabayan Bloc.
“If enacted, the P750 national minimum wage bill would not even come to half of the P42,000 monthly needed by a family of five, but this would at least give the needed relief from the surging prices of goods induced mainly…by the [Tax Reform Acceleration And Inclusion] Law,” Zarate said.
Zarate also called on the leadership of both houses of Congress to speed up the review and repeal of the “pro-rich but gravely anti-poor and regressive provisions of the TRAIN law, instead of tackling the TRAIN 2 package, which will once again benefit the big business.”