Red onions are being sold for 300 per kilo to date. Surprising? Not anymore, price hikes have been part of our daily lives. We hear it from the news, read it in newspapers, see it on different social media platforms. It came to the point that people would just nod their heads and shrug it off because they couldn’t do anything to stop this chain of unfortunate circumstances.
According to the Department of Agriculture, areas of top producers of red onions in the Philippines like Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Mimaropa were reported to have zero-percent sufficiency back in July. Thus, the scarce supply of red onions was expected to last until November. Yet we are in December and the hike is still steep. What is more disappointing is that our Filipino workers barely felt an increase in their wages despite their blood, sweat, and tears.
Last April, the Department of Labor and Employment already petitioned for an increase in the daily pay of the minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region. Last month, there was another petition for the regional wage board to review the wage increase for four million minimum wage earners. To date, we have not received anything. The labor chief was quoted that “wage adjustments could be made only once a year,” but how unfair is that? Price hikes are part of daily news, yet an increase in wages can only be allowed once a year? What other hardships are to come for us Filipinos? Can we survive this chain of unfortunate circumstances?
Prynces Therese L. Lacdang,
lacdang.ptl@pnu.edu.ph