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WAS
Nacionalista Party Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla of Cavite
designated by Malacañang to kill the controversial
proposal for a P125 wage increase?
Rep.
Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna posed this query Wednesday
as he criticized the Palace for orchestrating the move
to have the wage hike bill trashed upon the lobby by big
business.
Casiño
said Remulla’s motion to have the approval of the House
Bill 345 recalled by the House of Representatives “fits
nicely into Malacañang’s plan to either veto the bill or
make it rot in Congress.”
“While
it is normal for the President to treat Congress as its
doormat, what is tragic is that Malacañang seems to have
found a new fall guy for its antiworker plot,” Casiño
said.
“I am
saddened that Boying [Remulla] has allowed himself,
unwittingly I hope, to be used by Malacañang, and the
business sector to once again thwart the workers’ just
demand for a meaningful wage increase.”
Remulla,
however, took exception to Casiño’s remarks, insisting
that it is the rights and welfare of the workers, which
he is trying to protect.
He
feared for the job security of thousands of his
constituents in factories at the Cavite Export
Processing Zone, who could end up getting laid off once
the proposed wage hike is enacted into law.
He said
the measure approved by the House on third and final
reading last December is also constitutionally infirm.
“The proposed legislated wage hike cannot be made
retroactive. This [violates] the Constitution,” Remulla
said. The House version makes the wage hike’s
effectivity retroactive to October 2006. |
