Labor doubts decrease in WV poverty incidence

A LABOR leader in Negros Occidental has questioned the report of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in Western Visayas on the reduction of poverty incidence in the region.

Wennie Sancho, secretary general of the General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), said how come that the percentage of poverty lessened when the purchasing power of the workers decreased if computed using the consumer’s price index.

Sancho, also the labor representative of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Region 6, said they noted a total purchasing power reduction of P63 since the issuance of Wage Order No. 24 on July 16 last year.

“The filing of wage hike petition justifies that the purchasing power has weakened so how come that the poverty incidents in the region has lowered,” Sancho said.

Bacolod-based labor union New and Independent Workers Organization (Niwo) filed a petition seeking for a daily minimum wage increase of P50 to P60 for private sector workers in Western Visayas on Monday.

“The lower the purchasing power, the higher should be the wage increase in order to cope with the lost value of the peso,” he reiterated.

In a statement from the National Economic and Development Authority – Western Visayas, RDC Region 6 Chairperson and Antique Governor Rhodora Cadiao reported that poverty incidence in the region decreased from 25 percent to 15.9 percent among families.

In terms of poverty incidence among the population, the percentage also reduced from 31.4 percent to 21.2 percent during the first semester of last year.

Cadiao said this is brought about by the convergence of programs and projects of frontline agencies focusing on the target families under the Listahanan program as well as those in

far-flung communities.

She also reported that employment rate in Western Visayas last year was 94.7 percent while unemployment rate declined by 1.85 percent.

Though, underemployment rate increased by 11.38 percent. The Labor Force Participation Rate, on the other hand, slightly decreased by 0.65 percent, the RDC chair added.

The labor leader said they will seek clarification from RDC-6 as they doubted the latter’s report.

Sancho said government’s statistics are not realistic, they just released figures without going down to the ground. They missed to see the social reality on how poor the people really are, he said.

“We need real assessment. The increase in prices of vegetables, fish and other products would rather mean an increase in poverty incidence not lowering down,” Sancho added.