PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, May 2, 2024

In commemoration of Labor Day, members of DAKILA, an artists’ advocacy group, rallied to the streets of España and Morayta to call for #SahodItaas on May 1, 2024. 

With the ever-increasing precarity of labor in the Philippines, DAKILA deems it urgent to confront the harsh reality facing today’s Filipino workers–a steady price increase amidst stagnant wages.

Throughout the demonstrations,  members of DAKILA called to #PressTheCongress and wheat-pasted artcards containing the contact details of House Committee on Labor and Employment (HCLE) members, urging the people to direct their wage-related grievances to their offices. The HCLE leads the ongoing deliberation of the wage hike bill in Congress, ranging from P150 to P750. 

Despite the Senate approval of a P100 daily wage hike on February 19, 2024, the House of Representatives (HOR) has yet to pass the pending bills. In fact, they feel “no pressure” to pass it, says HCLE Chairman Rizal 4th District Rep. Fidel Nograles.

Formulated as a “recovery wage,” the P100 only mitigates the decline of real wage value in view of restless inflation and is not even close to the P1,160 living wage. In other words, the workers are asking for a bare minimum, and Nograles’ statement shows their misaligned priorities and glaring insensitivity to the workers’ plight. 

While the workers exhaust all means to make ends meet amid rising living costs, their supposed “representatives” in Congress prove themselves useless when faced with a modest wage hike.

The Senate and the People have already spoken. It is up to Congress to fulfill its mandate to serve the people it represents. 

You may download the printable digital version of the artcards through this link: https://bit.ly/DAKILA_MayoUno24

#SahodItaas #PressTheCongress #MayoUno #LaborDay 

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For media inquiries and further information, please contact:

Press Contact:
John Joshua Barbo

Public Relations Manager

DAKILA
info@dakila.org.ph | +639625281145

ABOUT DAKILA: 

DAKILA – Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism is an organization of artists, cultural and development activists, students, young professionals, and individuals creatively building a movement of heroism toward social transformation.