Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has reiterated his call for a long-term labor reform body to address the country’s joblessness and broader employment issues, following a rise in unemployed Filipinos to an estimated 2.5 million in May.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the national unemployment rate inched up to 4.8 percent in May from 4.7 percent in April, pushing the total number of jobless citizens from 2.41 million to 2.5 million. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate eased to 12.2 percent from 15.2 percent in the previous month.
The updated labor statistics coincided with Cayetano’s renewed push for the Executive-Legislative Labor Commission, a priority bill he filed in July 2025 designed to shape long-term policies on wages, employment, worker protection, and labor justice.
Cayetano said the proposed commission would bring together representatives from Congress, the executive branch, micro, small, and medium enterprises, trade and industry, and the labor sector, including migrant and informal workers, to collaborate on sustainable solutions to the living wage issue.
The senator emphasized that lower unemployment figures are insufficient if workers still face significant wage disparities and delayed access to legal resolution. During Senate deliberations on the proposed 2026 budget for the Department of Labor and Employment, he pointed out that extended labor disputes heavily disadvantage workers who cannot survive without income while waiting for case resolutions.
According to Cayetano, many workers give up on pursuing legal claims simply because they cannot afford to remain without earnings while their cases move through the dispute system.
Rather than relying on broad regional mandates, the proposed body would focus on coordinated, evidence-based measures, such as industry-specific wage policies, to directly tackle these persistent structural problems.
Cayetano expressed confidence that the labor commission would restore dignity to the workforce, creating domestic economic opportunities that prevent Filipinos from being forced to seek employment overseas away from their families. NLM
