WORKERS TO FIGHT HARDER IN THE 20TH CONGRESS FOR A LEGISLATED WAGE HIKE: TULOY ANG LABAN PARA SA DAAN-DAANG UMENTO SA KONGRESO—HINDI BARYA-BARYANG UMENTO MULA SA BULOK NA REGIONAL WAGE BOARDS!

The National Wage Coalition, composed of BMP, KMU, NAGKAISA!, and TUCP, vows to continue, with even greater resolve, the historic fight for the first-ever legislated wage hike in nearly four decades in the 20th Congress. Workers will not back down from the failure of the 19th Congress to convene the bicameral conference to reconcile and finalize an enrolled wage hike bill. Stronger and wiser, workers together with their families will continue to march forward in calling on every legislator in the House of Representatives and in the Senate to refile and pass the legislated wage hike bill as their first and foremost priority measure as they reaffirm their rhetoric of support and commitment for its swiftest passage in the 20th Congress. This is supported by the May 2025 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that confirms what we have long known: 92% of Filipinos want the Senate to prioritize a minimum wage hike; 95% demand the same from the House. This is not only an overwhelming public clamor but a national consensus for wage justice.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro has reiterated that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. is not against wage hikes because these will benefit workers. But this Administration must walk the talk: certify the legislated wage hike as urgent and include it among the priority measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) because this is the raise that our nation and our people long demand and deserve—not the too little, too late, and certainly always unjust and unfair yearly wage increases from the regional wage boards. Their wage orders are a mere pittance insulting and condemning workers with not even enough to feed their families nutritious food, send their children to school, access medical help, or afford decent housing. And now, with oil prices surging due to global geopolitical conflicts, the cost of nearly every basic necessity is set to soar even higher. Standing for the legislated wage hike is not only good politics because it is good public service—it is a social, economic, and moral imperative.

For 36 long years, over five million minimum wage earners have been deprived of their Constitutional right to a living wage, entrusting their survival to the mercy of obsolete, failed, and broken regional wage boards which, by regularly handing out token scraps and crumbs to workers like spare change thrown to beggars, have inculcated helplessness and hopelessness among our people, conditioning them to accept by hook or by crook, sometimes even with gratefulness, any ‘barya-barya’ wage adjustment because it is better than nothing at all. Yet, both employers groups and the economic managers of our Government still perpetuate this systemic exploitation, serving the interest of overflowing greed, obscene profits, and an oppressive status quo designed primarily to favor the richest to be even richer, leaving workers not only with empty promises but empty plates. Their fake tales and scare tactics that the legislated wage hike will kill jobs, destroy businesses, and crash the economy have been heard, debunked, and buried not only by academics, economists, civil society, informal workers, and minimum wage earners but by the House and the Senate which, after years of exhaustive deliberations and debates, passed their respective wage hike bills.

With more time, and no more excuses, as well as greater unity and political action, workers across the nation will further organize and mobilize to reach out the countless unorganized workers paid even below the minimum, escalate the struggle with more allies and champions inside and outside of Congress, and carry out this movement of resistance and righteous anger: TULOY ANG LABAN. DAANG-DAANG DAGDAG-SAHOD ANG PANAWAGAN.HINDI BARYA-BARYA! HINDI SA SUSUNOD NA TAON—KUNDI NGAYON!

19th Congress and Malacañang Betrayed Workers

The 19th Congress has ended in treachery against the working class. The proposed ₱100-₱200 legislated wage hike, which was just two steps away from becoming law—requiring only bicameral approval and the President’s signature—was deliberately set aside and sacrificed in favor of capitalist interests.  

There is no one else to blame for this betrayal but Martin Romualdez and Chiz Escudero, the two leaders of the 19th Congress who were not just slow and indolent, but deceptive and fraudulent. However, workers must not forget that Martin and Chiz merely follow the orders of their master, Marcos Jr., whose stance on wage hikes is to leave it to the useless regional wage boards.  

There is no more fitting occasion for outrage against the three highest officials of the Philippines than this very Independence Day. These three should symbolize the lack of freedom of workers and the poor from poverty and hunger. They should represent the continuing oppression of the people, despite the so-called "progress" boasted by their economic managers.  

The 20th Congress will open with the same leadership —all traitors to workers, all captured by capital. There is no new hope under the institutions they lead.  

But we will not stop fighting for a just wage, the right to collective bargaining and organizing and the advancement of more reforms, including political reforms. Because if the working class gives up in the face of hopelessness, those in power will only further enjoy their wealth and power as a ruling class.   

We did not gain freedom just to be ruled by them forever.  True freedom and independece will one day be in the hands of the working class. 

INDIGNATION STATEMENT - NAGKAISA: Senate Majority Turns Impeachment into Monkey Business

We strongly denounce the Senate majority’s decision to return the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte without dismissing or trying the case. Instead of letting her face the music, they gave her a backstage pass — shielding her from facing the music of public accountability and justice.

Through procedural acrobatics and legal technicalities, they threw a monkey wrench into the process — reducing a solemn constitutional duty into nothing more than political theater.

The Senate could have conditionally proceeded while allowing the House, in a pre-trial conference, to:

1. Certify that there was no violation of the one-year impeachment bar under Article XI, Section 3(5) of the Constitution;

2. Clarify the timeline and sequence of earlier complaints; and

3. Assert that impeachment — like electoral protest cases — may rightfully cross over from one Congress to another, as supported by both Philippine precedent in the electoral tribunals and U.S. and British practice and jurisprudence.

But instead of action, they chose abdication. The legal giants are gone — and in their place, small minds now dominate with alacrity, dragging the Senate’s reputation down and turning it into a global laughingstock.

This is not how justice is done — it’s how truth is buried.

Senate Must Proceed with VP Duterte Impeachment Trial — Not Short-Circuit It

The Senate has been procrastinating far too long. It is time to forthwith proceed with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, as the Constitution commands — not to toy with shortcuts.

Naimpeach na po si Sara ng House kaya dapat ang Senado ay agad-agad na lilitisin siya. Iyan po ang utos ng ating Saligang Batas — let her face the music na. Iyan po ang ibig sabihin ng “shall forthwith proceed to trial” sa Section 3(6), Article XI ng 1987 Constitution.

Hindi pwedeng sumayaw palayo sa public accountability. The public must now demand not whether to impeach — that step is done — but that the Senate proceed with the trial as mandated.

Yet Senator Tolentino now proposes to abbreviate the trial to just 19 days that ends on June 30. That is far too short.

NAGKAISA Labor Coalition disagrees with Tolentino’s proposal.

Past impeachments were never rushed. President Estrada’s trial took 22 trial days (cut short by a walkout and the EDSA 2 that followed). Chief Justice Corona’s trial took 44 trial days over several months. Rushing a trial today would deny due process to both the prosecution and defense, violate the Constitution, and undermine the Senate’s duty to conduct a fair and credible proceeding.

Moreover, NAGKAISA  emphasizes that an impeachment trial can and should continue even if it crosses into the 20th Congress. The Senate exercises institutional and continuing jurisdiction over such trials.

U.S. experience — the very model upon which the Philippine impeachment system was patterned — clearly shows this principle. The framers of our 1987 Constitution adopted much of the U.S. Senate’s role and procedures in impeachment trials. In U.S. history:

• President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021 was conducted by a new Congress after the impeachment by the House in a prior term.

• President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial likewise carried over into a new congressional session.

• Judge West Humphreys’ impeachment trial in 1862 proceeded after a change in Congress.

• In British parliamentary history — another reference for our drafters — House of Lords impeachment trials routinely continued across new parliaments.

Thus, there is no constitutional obstacle to continuing the VP Duterte impeachment trial into the next Congress. What is needed is political will to uphold the Constitution and the people’s demand for accountability.

The public demands justice — not short cut and cover up.