Palace cool to P200 aid for minimum wage earners

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Malacañang on Thursday expressed reservation over the proposal of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to give a P200 financial assistance to minimum wage earners within a three-year period.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the proposal might force the government to implement another tax increase.

“Anything is possible. But of course, it has to be discussed and examined,” Roque said in a Palace briefing.

Roque questioned how the government could fund the proposal of Bello despite the labor chief saying that it was the amount the government could fund right now.

“Kasi siyempre nagtataas tayo ng buwis dahil may mga proyekto na pagkakagastusan. Pero kung magbibigay na naman tayo ng benepisyo, ibig sabihin saan natin kukunin ‘yung ibibigay natin na P200? So ibig sabihin tataas na naman ‘yung buwis. So kailangang balansehin po,” he said.

(Because of course we raise taxes due to the projects we are funding. But if we give these benefits, where will we get that P200? That means taxes will go up again. So we need to balance this.)

Bello said the Philippines has 4.1 million minimum wage earners. /je