📷: Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (SAPIEA) Frederick Go
By DIEGO MORRA
The recent demand of the Marcos Jr. administration for his Cabinet members and top officials of various departments and government-owned corporations to tender their courtesy resignations signaled only one thing: Malacanang was shifting the blame for the beating of its senatorial slate in the May 12, 2025 midterm elections on bureaucrats and paves the way for the obsession of some Palace figures to downsize the public work force by 50%, if some devils will get their way.
Now, they are getting it. Leading the way in weeding the chaff from the grain, so to speak, is the purported economic cluster of the Cabinet, led by the primus inter pares Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (SAPIEA) Frederick Go, an official who was never confirmed by the Commission on Appointments (CA) but who wields so much power that he can negotiate with US officials to bring down the threatened tariffs down to earth. However, Go is not alone in “rationalizing” the government since he led the wage-busting economic cluster in shooting down the legislated wage hike for millions of Filipino workers, with proposals as high as P200 in the Lower House and P100 in the penny-pinching Senate.
Go, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Trade Secretary Cristina Roque and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr. signed position paper slamming legislated wage hikes, claiming raising worker pay would increase the inflation rate by 0.7% as production costs soar, worsen unemployment between 0.2% to 0.6%, which is enough to render jobless 300,000 workers. Their solution? Let the regional wage boards decide on minimum wage issues to the delight of local and foreign capitalists, believing that the cost of living in the non-Metro Manila areas is low, which isn’t true. These boards obliged, led by the Metro Manila wage board, as it raised the minimum wage by a puny P50, increasing the pay from P645 to P695. The Gang of Six got its way, and the plutocrats that each of them serves are grinning from ear-to-ear.
Go, now regarded as the Palace Rasputin or “gray eminence” as he has the President’s ear, apparently has also a lot of influence in reshuffling key agencies in the aftermath of the May 12 debacle in the senatorial race. Which is the reason why he and a Malacanang lawyer, have been criticized for what has been dubbed as the “massacre” at the Bureau of Customs (BOC), when Bienvenido Y. Rubio was ousted as commissioner, along with six of his deputies. Sadly, Rubio was kicked out while attending a conference overseas, without as much as a gentle notice, a polite missive or even a “promotion” to a position of irrelevance. No wonder many capable bureaucrats do not want to work with government. You do not know when you are getting it on the chin for acts of omission or commission. The rule is obey and never complain?
Call them the plutocrat keepers but their joint position paper was published days after the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) protested the proposed P200 wage increase, with both MAP chairman Alfredo Panlilio and national issues committee chief Rene Almendras saying on June 9, 2025 that the matter of wages should be subjected to consultations forever and ever. “Our basic problem is not low wages but high costs. We believe that attention should be given to the wage-to-cost ratio, not just wages,” MAP argued. Part of the anti-wage hike front is the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) perennially headed by Sergio Ortiz Luis, Jr. who claimed that Filipino workers now enjoy the highest minimum wage in the 10-member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) owing to the “yearly increases” in pay by the penny-pinching regional wage boards. In arguing for an end to annual pay hikes, Luis insists that only 10% of Filipino workers benefit from minimum wage increases.
Go, who is supposed to be the genius that helmed the success of Gokongwei property development projects, apparently went the whole hog in leading the move to trump the legislated wage increases opposed by warehousemen, compradors and agents of foreign corporations. Fact is, the minimum wage in the Philippines is ranked 63rd worldwide, from a low of $169 monthly to a maximum of $231 monthly. The minimum wage in Malaysia Is much higher at $381 and Thailand at $354, with the figures disclosed by Juliene Raboca for Playroll on May 14, 2025. Where did ECOP discover the “truth” that Filipino workers enjoy the highest minimum wage in ASEAN? Velocity Global also belied the ECOP claim, noting that the Philippines ranks 7th worst in minimum wages among 10 economies worldwide based on its December 9, 2024 listing. These countries are: India; Nigeria; Uzbekistan; Pakistan; Armenia; Kazakhstan; Philippines; Ukraine; Vietnam, and; Indonesia.
An analysis from Picodi Philippines showed that prices of basic commodities have also risen by a higher ratio than the much-touted “annual” wage increases in the Philippines. The cost of a “survival basket” compared to the minimum wage has been rising. The analysis showed that the minimum wage has lagged behind the cost of commodities. The lowest wage hikes were for employees in France (3.4%), Germany (2.8%), and Thailand (2.5%), while countries like Spain, Malaysia, or Vietnam are experiencing a frozen minimum wage process or have made no decision to increase their minimum wage rates. The countries with the highest increase in the minimum wage were Argentina and Tukey and all because their governments responded to the huge inflation rates. The Philippines ranked 33rd with the minimum net wage of ₱8,725 (US$154.85), which increased to 8.2% than last year (₱8,066 net, or $143.15) in 2023.
Using a basic grocery basket consisting of eight groups of products (such as bread, milk, eggs, rice, cheese, meat, fruits, and vegetables) that make up the minimum nutrient requirements of an average adult for a month as an allegory for the basic needs of an employee, the total cost of the “survival basket” at the beginning of 2024 is ₱5,776 ($102.51, which is 8.9% more than the year before), indicating that any talk about Filipino workers are getting paid ,more than their counterparts overseas as pure bunk. It doesn’t wash. This amount, Picodi said, makes up 66.2% of the current net minimum wage, while at the beginning of last year, it was 65.8% of the minimum wage, which means that despite the increase in the minimum salary of Filipinos, it has not been able to keep up with the rise of food prices. Surely, the wage policy of the Marcos Jr. administration is neither here nor there, influenced by much-touted bureaucrats who could not stop their petrochemical venture from going under, or warehousemen who cannot solve the horrendous traffic gridlock. Next time around, they would blame Filipino workers for their mismanagement of the affairs of their businesses and the state.
