CHIZ WELCOMES HOUSE SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATED WAGE HIKE

Sen. Chiz Escudero on Monday (Feb. 26) welcomed the move of the House of Representatives to pass its own version of a bill that would grant a legislated daily wage hike to millions of minimum wage earners in the country.

"It is nice to see that things are moving forward not only for the Filipino workers but also for both houses of Congress," said Escudero who called on the House of Representatives to support the legislated minimum wage hike for workers in the private sector.

The Senate last week passed on third and final reading Senate Bill 2534 that would grant a P100 increase in the daily minimum wage of employees in the private sector.

It is now awaiting the House version so that the legislative process can proceed to the next step and minimum wage earners in the private sector will finally have their long-delayed salary adjustment.

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said over the weekend that the House leadership is studying proposals for P150 and P350 in daily minimum wage hikes.

The House Committee on Labor and Employment is scheduled to convene on Wednesday (February 28) to discuss the two measures seeking a legislated wage hike for private sector workers.

Escudero said he is happy that despite the disagreements among the senators and the congressmen on constitutional amendments, both the Senate and the House leaderships have shown their commitment to move things forward in terms of other legislation.

"I have always believed that while we may disagree on a couple of things, there is so much more that we can agree on and work on together," Escudero pointed out.

"Focusing on the things that bind us and working on matters that we agree on is the key to healing and unifying not only Congress, but our nation as well," he added.