The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines scored the National Economic and Development Authority for saying a Filipino can survive on P64 a day to cover three meals.
TUCP said NEDA’s assertion was an insult to every Filipino and would undermine workers’ call for a P150 across-the-board daily wage increase.
“The government and employers abuse these silly statistics to dismiss the survival crisis of the working class—to make ends meet,” TUCP vice president Luis Corral said.
“Is our country’s chief economic planner on another planet to not witness the crippling impact of skyrocketing food inflation, especially rice, and electricity inflation to Filipinos every day? This is a severe insult to Filipino workers who sacrifice their blood, sweat, and tears to do honest hard work but are reduced to a meal worth just P20,” Corral added.
NEDA Secretary-General Arsenio Balisacan earlier said an individual who can spend at least P64 per day on food, which equates to about P20 per meal will not be classified as “food poor.”
NEDA’s 2023 data showed the monthly food budget for a family of five is approximately P9,581, or roughly P63.87 a day per person.
“Such an unrealistically low food poverty threshold only serves to arm those who oppose our proposed concrete, actionable, and reasonable wage hike, not only undermining the credibility of the government but derailing our efforts to uplift the lives of our people and uphold their rights which should be the hallmarks of ‘Bagong Pilipinas,’” Corral said.
“With high prices and low wages as the most urgent issues plaguing our nation, there is only one course of action: Congress must urgently pass the P150 wage hike proposed by TUCP to end the crisis of poverty wages further eroded by surging prices,” he added.
