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MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang would not say if it will announce a minimum wage increase in time for Labor Day on Thursday.
Asked if President Benigno Aquino III will be giving any good news, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, “I think yesterday (Tuesday) the President was able to share his views with the labor sector.”
Lacierda, in a press conference on Wednesday, said the President has already met with labor leaders and discussed their concerns and what could be done to address the problems.
“There has been, by the way, as mentioned by the President, a total of 26 dialogues with various Cabinet members, which were held with labor groups last year,” he said.
Tax breaks
Aquino on Wednesday met with labor leaders who complained about low wages, high power rates and their request to receive tax breaks for salary increase from Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The President admitted that they will have to study the possibility of giving tax breaks without violating the constitutional provision on uniform taxation.
Lacierda assured the public that the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Labor and Employment are looking into the matter.
“That’s the reason why President Aquino ordered or instructed Secretary Baldoz and Commissioner Henares to sit down and study this thing further because, again, you have also the issue of the uniformity of taxation. We want to make sure that whatever we do should be uniform and should not unfairly prejudice any one sector,” he said.
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