PM on DOLE’s secret and historic rollback of P85 wage hike

Wage Order No. 28, issued and published by the National Wages and Productivity Commission’s NCR Regional Wage Board today, created more wage confusion rather than hope, the Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated in response. 

 

“Ngayon ay mas maraming dapat ipaliwanag ang nagtatagong Labor Secretary. Ang Wage Order 28 ay historic rollback mula P85 – P60, Sec. Tolentino. Bukod pa sa ito ay sikretong desisyon ng regional wage board na hindi kasali ang manggagawa,” said PM Chairperson Renato Magtubo.

 

Magtubo said the new wage order shames Tolentino to the max as there was no judicious explanation for his retreat other than his kaduwagan (cowardice) against Judge Manongsong.

 

“Nakakahiya dahil nabahag ang buntot ni Tolentino sa harap ni Manongsong kahit napakatibay ng ligal na basehan na dapat ipatupad ng DOLE ang Wage Order 27 sa ilalim ng Labor Code at RA 6727, bukod pa sa nabigo din ang RII Builders at Readycon na mag-post ng P10-B bond para para maging effective ang injunction,” explained the PM leader. 

 

The group likewise insinuated that WO 28 is Malacañang’s compromise position with employers as the Labor Secretary acts only in accordance with the position of his boss, President Marcos, Jr. 

 

The result of this cowardice and compromised executive position: “Nadagdagan ang order, pero nabawasan ang wage.” 

 

It is also historic for NCR to get two wage orders, said Magtubo. “Dalawang wage orders na sa NCR, habang ang mga manggagawa sa ibang regions ay nganga at naghihintay sa wala.”

 

For PM, this is not simply a question of whether P60 or P85 is enough. The bigger problem is the system itself.

 

“Ang presyo ng mga produkto ay deregulated, diretso sa merkado sa lahat ng panig ng bansa. Pero ang sweldo, hindi aplikable sa lahat ng rehiyon at pwede pang pakialaman ng Judge,” said Magtubo. 

 

PM called for a comprehensive reform of the wage-setting system toward a mechanism that guarantees regular, timely and substantial wage increases; progressively eliminates unjustifiable regional wage gaps; and moves toward a national minimum wage based on genuine living wage standards.

 

PRESS RELEASE

Partido Manggagawa

11 September 2026

 

Wage Hike Injunction, Metro Floods Sending Workers Deeper to a Life of Poverty

 

Photo from Manila Collegian

A combination of days without work due to flooding with the non-implementation of the ₱60 wage hike (first tranche) due to court injunction is making life harder for minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement Tuesday.

 

“The 1.1 million minimum wage workers in NCR are losing ₱66,000,000.00 a day from the Pasig court’s unjust imposition of injunction against the ₱60 wage hike. Add another day without work due to flooding for the same number of workers and the loss reaches a staggering ₱764,500,000.00 (₱695 present minimum wage x 1.1 million workers),” explained PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Magtubo explained further that unlike Judge Manongsong, a government employee who keeps her salary intact when work in government is suspended due to bad weather, private sector workers get no pay under the principle of ‘no-work-no pay’.

 

“Kaya nga ‘imortal’ ang tawag sa mga manggagawa sa pribadong sektor sa ganitong mga panahon dahil sinusuong nila ang panganib at mas kinatatakutan nilang mawalan ng kita sa isang araw kaysa mabasa o lumubog sa baha,” said Magtubo.

 

The group stressed that this combination of labor injustice and climate crisis is a burden both lawmakers and the President must address at the policy level as well as in program implementation as the principle of check and balance between the co-equal branches of government doesn’t undermine the worker’s right to life and the rising standard of living.

 

Magtubo added: “This life and injustice completely escaped the mind of Judge Manongsong when she did the unimaginable issuance of TRO and injunction against the P85 wage hike.”

 

“Hindi kayang i-dismiss ni Judge Manongsong and pagbuhos ng ulan at baha, pero kaya nitong i-dismiss ang petisyon ng dalawang kapitalista lalo na at walang hurisdiksyon ang kanyang korte sa usapin ng sweldo,” said Magtubo.

 

Labor groups were pressing for the lifting of the court injunction against the ₱85 wage hike injunction before the Supreme Court, at the same time calling for Congress to rectify decades of labor injustice by abolishing the provincial rate system with the enactment of the ₱200 wage hike and the National Minimum Wage Law. 

 

PRESS RELEASE

18 August 2026

EMPLOYERS HAVE NO RIGHT TO CRY “DUE PROCESS” AFTER SKIPPING WAGE BOARD HEARINGS

 

Partido Manggagawa (PM) Chairperson Renato “Ka Rene” Magtubo today condemned the Pasig Regional Trial Court’s injunction against NCR Wage Order No. 27, calling it an illegal intrusion into a process that belongs solely to the wage boards. 

 

“Absent sa hearing ng NCR Wage Board, tapos kay Judge Manongsong nagpakanlong?” complained Magtubo.

 

Magtubo, former PM partylist representative and now a Marikina City Councilor, also slammed petitioner-employers — Readycon Trading and Construction Corp and R-II Builders - for skipping RTWPB consultations and public hearings, then running to court. 

 

“They skipped the venue the law required them to attend. They bypassed the NWPC, their proper forum. Now they claim due process and forum-shop in the regular courts. You cannot refuse to speak, then cry you were not heard,” he said. 

 

Citing Articles 123 and 126 of the Labor Code, Magtubo said the law bars regular courts from stopping wage order proceedings. Exclusive jurisdiction lies with the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board and the National Wages and Productivity Commission. 

 

“The law is clear. The Pasig RTC injunction is a plain jurisdictional defect, not a legal remedy,” he said. 

 

Magtubo argued further that Wage Order No. 27 gives workers only an ₱85 increase — ₱60 in July 25 and ₱20 in January 2027. Even with this, wages remain far below the ₱1,300 a day a family of five needs in NCR. And yet even this meager relief is being strangled in the regular courts,” he said. 

 

He warned that the delay directly hurts workers who followed the legal process. “Every month this injunction drags on is a month of stolen wages. If employers can use regular courts to indefinitely suspend a wage board decision, where do workers go to claim a right the law already granted?” 

 

Magtubo also urged Congress to amend Articles 123 and 126 to penalize courts that entertain such injunctions and to fast-track their dismissal. 

 

“Beyond patching the law, this proves the regional wage board system is too slow and too vulnerable. It is time Congress legislates a national minimum wage indexed to the cost of living — insulated from legal harassment and court interference,” concluded Magtubo.

 

PRESS RELEASE 

August 14, 2026 

 

PM condemns Pasig judge’s forever TRO

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa slammed the decision of Pasig Regional Trial Court Judge Marie Joyce Manongsong to grant the employers’ petition for a writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of the P85 wage order for minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region.

 

“Judge Manongsong’s forever TRO deprives at least a million minimum earners from benefiting from the recent wage order. The forever TRO suspends the wage hike for workers and gives capitalists a profit increase. Pinalawig ng preliminary injunction ang pagKAKAMALi ni Manongsong na patawan ng TRO ang wage order, bagay na singlinaw ng sikat ng araw ay di maaring gawin ayon sa Labor Code at Wage Rationalization Act,” asserted Rene Magtubo.

 

Magtubo argued that “If just two employers can afford to post a P10 billion bond then why can’t all the NCR-based capitalists afford to pay the P60 first tranche? P10 billion is enough to pay the P60 wage increase for 1.1 million minimum wage earners for a total of 151 days or almost 6 working months. Capitalists have the capacity to pay the wage hike. But they are so greedy and don’t want their profits reduced.”

 

Magtubo called the workers in Metro Manila and the whole country to express their outrage at the forever TRO against the wage hike. “Judges and employers, not just in NCR but in other regions, can always invent legal arguments against the wage hike and for a profit increase. Workers should wage an extra-legal battle to win a wage increase!”

Press Release

Partido Manggagawa