ECOP points to CCT fund for minimum wage earners’ subsidy

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines will back the proposed P500 monthly subsidy for minimum wage earners, if this will come from the conditional cash transfer (CCT) fund.

This develops as the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) proposed the monthly cash voucher to President Duterte earlier this year.

Under the group’s proposal, the subsidy should be limited to minimum wage earners who are members of good standing of the Social Security System for at least six months.

ALU-TUCP vice president Luis Manuel Corral had said that it would target four million minimum wage earners.

For Ecop’s part, however, acting president  Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said in a statement that the money should be sourced from the CCT fund, which is also called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

“We have nothing against the proposed subsidy, especially if it will be coming from the CCT (conditional cash transfer),”  Ortiz-Luis said.

“Anyway it can just be a re-allocation of the subsidy,” he added.

This marks a compromise on the part of Ecop, which has generally opposed moves to raise the minimum wage amid rising inflation and higher taxes on some consumer goods.

According to the Official Gazette, the 4Ps program provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0 to 18.

It was patterned after similar schemes in Latin American and African countries, which the Gazette said lifted millions out of poverty.

Ortiz-Luis, who also heads Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc., had said that a part of the 4Ps fund should be allocated for the development of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).