MANILA, (PNA)– Despite gaining strong opposition from employers, minority Senator Vicente Sotto III believes his proposed bill mandating the granting of 14th month pay to rank and file employees will get support from his colleagues in the Senate.
”It has a big chance in the Senate,” Sotto said in a radio dzBB interview on Sunday.
Sotto said he has already talked with some congressmen for the filing of similar bill in the House of Representatives.
”I’m pretty sure they (congressmen) will support and like this proposal,” Sotto said.
Sotto has even challenged the lawmakers claiming they are pro-poor, to come out and push passage of the bill which, as expected, drew support from employees but opposed by the group of employers.
”Let’s work for its passage specially those lawmakers claiming they are pro-poor. This (bill) is pro-poor. This is for our poor countrymen,” Sotto said.
If passed into law, the 14th month pay will be given to the government and private rank and file employees every December while the existing 13th month pay will be released every June in time for the school enrollment.
Sotto said the source of fund for the government employees is not a problem while the private employers can use the proposed bill as “middle ground” solution to the labor force’s demand of P125 wage hike.
”On the employers’ side, it is better compared to the P125 wage increase demand because if you divide it in one year, the average result would be only P30 to P35 per day increase,” Sotto explained.
On the government side, Sotto believed that the government has enough funds to grant the 14th month pay to its rank and file specially amid strong clamor for the abolition of the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) of the lawmakers.
”We enough funds in the government specially now that we are talking the abolition of PDAF although it’s only two percent of the entire national budget,” he said.
Sotto urged the critics of his bill to give it a chance and consider the benefits it will give both to the employers and employees.
”The employers should realize that granting incentive like this would benefit their companies because the employees would be productive if we will grant them 14th month pay,” he explained.
Sotto said the target of his bill is to help the rank and file employees who turned to loan sharks to borrow money for the enrollment of their children every June.
He said he will ask the proper Senate committee to immediately conduct public hearings to tackle his proposed measure.
”Hopefully, we can approve it before June next year so that our poor workers can use it for the enrolment,” he said.