While the average inflation of 3.2% in 2024 was almost half compared to 2023, it continued to erode the purchasing power of wages. Relatively higher food prices also disproportionately hurt minimum wage earners and informal workers with 4.3% inflation for the bottom 30% of the income households. Thus, the demand for another round of minimum wage increases in 2024 was a recurring theme for organized labor. The campaign for a wage hike was two-pronged, with wage bills for a P150 increase filed in Congress and in the regional wage boards. 

The Senate approved a P100 increase in the minimum wage in February 2024. This advance was a result of organized labor’s successful leveraging of the rift between the two chambers of Congress over the latest move to amend the Constitution. The Senate stood pat against charter change and instead enacted the salary increase, but the reverse was the case in the House of Representatives. Despite conducting hearings on pending wage hike bills, the House committee on labor sat on the proposal and basically killed it. 

In contrast with this inaction on the workers’ demand for a wage adjustment, the House was fast and furious with the quad committee’s inquiry into the connections among the war on drugs and extrajudicial killings during President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration as well as the illegal offshore gambling hubs and the blue ribbon committee’s investigation of the confidential funds of the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte and the Department of Education during her tenure as its chief.

The year ended with no legislated wage hike but with wage orders for several regions. Still, minimum wages in all the regions—including those which had an increase, like Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Cebu and Central Luzon—remained below the official poverty line even if the threshold was assailed for being too low, as the controversy over the P64 daily food budget revealed. With the wage boards perpetuating a system of poverty wages, calls for the abolition of provincial rates became popular.

Philhealth funds

On another front, organized labor and civil society allies fought a defensive war to keep Philhealth funds devoted to improving benefits to members and providing services for indigents, as mandated by the Universal Health Care Act. As much as P60 billion of Philhealth funds were transferred by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to fund unprogrammed items in the national budget before the Supreme Court in October stopped the last tranche of P29.9 billion. The labor coalition Nagkaisa was an intervenor in the Supreme Court case to oppose the transfer of P90 billion of Philhealth funds to the national treasury.

Another battle erupted in December when the congressional bicameral conference committee removed the subsidy for Philhealth along with cuts in other social services. Nagkaisa led protests in Metro Manila and Cebu—including a big rally on Mendiola—to call for the restoration of the Philhealth subsidy and the budget for social services. 

But President Marcos Jr. did not heed the popular clamor as he signed the 2025 national budget by yearend with the much-assailed budget insertions for “ayuda” kept intact. Among these was the P26 billion unprogrammed budget for Akap, or the Ayuda para sa Kapos sa Kita Program, which has been criticized as funding for electoral patronage and tagged as the brainchild of House Speaker Martin Romualdez. This means that formal and informal workers will now have to beg politicians for assistance for medical and other emergencies instead of getting health insurance as a right. 

As if on cue, the Commission on Elections allowed the distribution of “ayuda” even during the midterm elections in May, breaking with the long-established prohibition on disbursement of public money during the campaign period—a ban based on the fact that doles are easily exploited as a means for vote buying. 

Prospects for 2025

The start of the new year greets workers with a higher social security contribution of 5% to be deducted from their wages. This will result in lower take-home pay for private-sector laborers. To keep the Social Security System afloat while easing the burden on workers, the government should subsidize the employee share. This is a tough task as the Marcos Jr. administration would rather have workers and the poor solicit “ayuda” from politicians. It promises to be another plank of organized labor’s demand for quality public services and universal social protection.

Even as demands for higher pay, lower prices, more jobs and decent work remain very popular issues during the election period, the chances of positive outcomes for workers are bleak because political dynasties, which are evolving from fat to obese, dominate the landscape. Workers have no allies either in the two main political dynasties—dubbed the “House of Polvoron” and the “House of Fentanyl,” which will be fighting for supremacy in May.

Continuing recent trends, many labor-based groups have been eased out of the party list system as it has been swamped by electoral vehicles for politicians who cannot compete in district polls. The party list system has warped into  another pathway for members of obese dynasties to enter the House through the backdoor.

Nonetheless, groups such as Partido Manggagawa (PM) are engaging with local candidates for the establishment of public laundromats and whole-day childcare centers to ease the care burdens of employed and unemployed women. Along with such low-hanging fruits, PM is also campaigning for the passage of the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy bill in response to the crisis level of teenage mothers. Against the tide of sleek TV and FB ads of national candidates, PM is conducting information dissemination in working-class communities for four imperatives, or what it calls “Apat na Dapat”: wage hike, regular jobs, social services and national sovereignty.

Workers will have to endure worse economic difficulties as political infighting heightens in 2025 and the remaining years of the Marcos Jr. administration. But this situation also motivates organized labor to engage with public outrage over wanton government corruption and dynastic political dominance. A big multisectoral rally in January promises to jumpstart a robust movement for good governance, in which workers’ demands should be embedded and integral.

Judy Ann Miranda is secretary general of Partido Manggagawa and a labor feminist. This piece is an expanded version of a letter to the editor that appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Daily Guardian in Iloilo in the first week of January.

Read more: In 2022, crisis in incomes and jobs pummeled labor sector

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Meanwhile, certain quarters in the local entertainment industry have spoken about some questionable provisions in the final form of Senate Bill No. 2505, or An Act Protecting the Welfare of Workers in the Movie and Television Industry. 

After the celebratory air in the halls of the Senate early this year, whipped up by TV and film luminaries mobilized by entertainment-industry leaders in lobbying for and lending support to the measure, a number of movie/TV stars and workers are voicing unhappiness about some of its provisions.

Listen to Leo Martinez, TV and movie actor, writer and director, and former director general of the Film Academy of the Philippines, expressing disappointment in his video as Congressman Manhik-Manaog: 

“Akala ko ba, itong ‘Eddie Garcia Bill ay para sa mga manggagawa. Ay, bakit sa tingin ko ay kampi at pabor pa rin … sa mga networks at mga prodyuser.” (I thought this bill is for the workers. But in my view, it is siding with and favoring networks and producers.)

According to Martinez, one just has to refer to Section 9 of the measure stating that the maximum weekly working hours for audiovisual projects, per the Department of Labor and Employment based on labor laws and the International Labor Organization convention, is 40 hours standard plus 8 hours for overtime, or a total of 48 hours per week.

He wondered why the bill mentions too many working hours: “Eh bakit yang ‘Eddie Garcia bill’ na yan ay sobra-sobra? Sixty hours daw.” 

Off-camera workers do not benefit from the bill’s final version, Martinez pointed out:

“Kung 14 hours lang ang para sa lahat nang manggagawa, eh paano naman yung nadating bago dumating ang mga artista? Sila rin ang nagpa-pack at huling umaalis. Eh di 16, 17, 18 ang trabaho nila. Okay pa ba yun?” (If 14-hour work is applied to all workers, what about those who come to the set earlier and leave later than the actors? So, their working hours are 16, 17, 18. Is that okay?)

Even actors of senior age will be affected by certain stipulations in the bill, he added:  “Nawala na rin yung sa senior citizen. Dapat eight hours lang ang trabaho nila. Bakit? Anong nangyari?” (The provisions for senior-citizen actors are missing as well. They should work eight hours only. Why? What happened?) 

Martinez raised the issue of proper remuneration for talents, and cited a provision in the Intellectual Property Law stating that actors can collect fees not greater than 5% of their original daily talent fee whenever their films and TV shows are reshown. For example, he said, if one’s daily talent fee is P1,000, one is entitled to P50 for every replay of one’s work.

“Eh bakit ang ‘Eddie Garcia bill,’ kumampi na naman sa mga network at prodyuser?” he said. “Ang remuneration daw ay depende sa pag-uusap ng artista at ng network o prodyuser. Ay! Mali yan!” (Why is the bill again favoring the networks and producers? It says the remuneration depends on the arrangement between the actor and the network or producer. That’s not right.)

Martinez also said it’s unlawful for the intellectual property rights of talents to be bound to contracts with networks and producers. 

Other members of the entertainment industry have likewise raised concerns about the approved Senate bill. 

Actor and producer Carlo Maceda, for one, recalled how he attended the Senate hearing on the bill early this year to fight for the basic human rights of and better working conditions for entertainment workers, but it all turned out to be a farce:  “Nakipaglaban pa kami para sa mga karapatan namin bilang mga actor, lalo na sa pasahod at oras ng paggawa, pero moro-moro lang pala yon.”

But there’s nothing more to be done, Maceda said, adding that he considered Senators Robinhood Padilla, Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, Lito Lapid and others who worked on the measure as his senior colleagues and elder brothers in the industry: “Wala tayong magagawa. Itinuturing ko silang mga kuya.”

On the other hand, action star and now full-fledged director Efren Reyes Jr. said he does not want to take sides and make enemies.

The post What went wrong with the ‘Eddie Garcia bill’? appeared first on CoverStory.

Veteran actor and comedian Leo Martinez is not happy with Senate Bill No. 2505, otherwise known as the Eddie Garcia Bill. 

“I do not support it,” Martinez said, adding that he is in favor of the House of Representatives’ version of the measure. Martinez is known for his alter ego, “Tongressman Manhik Manaog,” and was for some 20 years the director general of the Film Academy of the Philippines.

SB 2505 seeks “to protect and support movie and television workers from unfair treatment and poor working conditions,” according to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, its main sponsor. 

2 provisions

Martinez cited two provisions concerning work hours and remuneration rights for his negative reaction. 

The bill provides that regular work hours on film shoots and television taping sessions will be 8-14 hours a day, exclusive of meal time. Martinez is strongly against this. “No to 14 hours of work,” he said. “Adding two hours for meal breaks, that will be 16 hours on the set, and it does not count the egress of the crew who still needs to return the equipment to the offices of the supplier.”

The bill also proposes that the first two hours for the application of special effects such as prosthetics not be considered work hours. To this, Martinez said: “The application of makeup and especially prosthetics is a burden that the actor endures at the instruction of the employer. Why not include this in the working hours? If an actor needs two hours for makeup and prosthetics and does 14 hours maximum allowable hours, he would work for 16 hours straight excluding meal periods.”

For Tirso Cruz III, actor and head of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, “14 is good [but] inclusive of lunch and dinner breaks.”

The Inter Guild Alliance, the umbrella organization of the different guilds in the industry, proposed a maximum16-hour work day inclusive of meal breaks, with the count starting when the first person arrives on the set and ending with the tail lights, when the last person leaves the set. 

On matters of remuneration rights, Section 25 of the bill recognizes that a worker shall be paid additional compensation for every subsequent use or broadcast of a performance or intellectual property. However, the same section states: “Nothing herein shall prevent the worker from agreeing to transfer all intellectual property rights in favor of the employer or principal.”

Martinez, who chairs the board of trustees of the Performers’ Rights Society of the Philippines, wants the statement deleted. “We have acceded to the Beijing Treaty for Audiovisual Performances without reservations,” he said. The treaty provides for the right to remuneration in exchange for the transfer of all exclusive rights.” He said the “unless” provision means “a performer can no longer prevent the use of his work product. Once the exclusive rights are transferred, the producer has all the authority needed to exhibit or cause the broadcast of the film or program.”

Tripartite Council

House Bill No.1270, which was approved on Feb. 23, 2023, provides that “normal work hours shall be eight (8) hours a day, which can be extended to a maximum of twelve (12) hours, served intermittently or continuously, exclusive of meal periods.” However, it adds, “permissible working hours in excess of the normal work hours shall be determined by the Tripartite Council.”  

Th House cited Republic Act No. 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code as basis for the provision “that a performer shall enjoy the inalienable right to participate in the gross proceeds of any subsequent use or broadcasting of such performance or intellectual property to the extent of five percent (5%) as additional remuneration.”

A bicameral session to unite the two versions of the bill is yet to be scheduled. But Martinez said he would initiate a strong lobby before the bicameral session for the adoption of the House version, specifically in the two provisions that he opposes.

Other industry insiders are looking forward to the creation of the Tripartite Council to help fill the gaps in the legislation.

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Five years after his death, the iconic character actor Eddie Garcia is honored with legislation bearing his name and aimed at protecting workers in the film and television industry.

Senate Bill (SB) No. 2505, otherwise known as the Eddie Garcia Bill, was unanimously approved by the Senate on Feb. 19. It now awaits a bicameral conference to unite it with the version passed by the House of Representatives in February last year. 

The measure covers all those engaged in movie and TV productions “regardless of function, roles, position or status.” Among its salient provisions is ensuring the health and safety of all industry workers during location shooting.

Garcia died on June 20, 2019, two weeks after he tripped on an electric cable while filming a TV soap opera. The production vans were parked blocks away from the set, and no trained personnel were on hand to properly transport him to the hospital. 

The actor suffered from a fractured cervical spine and was in coma before he expired. It was an accident that could have been avoided had safety precautions been in place.

The bill’s journey

Liza Diño, at that time chair of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), said she immediately contacted members of Garcia’s family and called for a meeting of some industry people to discuss safety precautions on film and TV sets. Directors Joel Lamangan and Laurice Guillen, along with actor Iza Calzado, attended the initial discussion.

The tragic circumstances of Garcia’s death triggered a strong reaction among industry workers and showed the general public the vulnerability of a perceived glamorous industry. There were loud calls to institute safety standards.   

According to Diño, the FDCP already laid the technical groundwork on safety issues when it called for a Film Workers Summit in 2017.Thereafter, and even prior to Garcia’s death, the agency consulted with the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Division of the Department of Labor and Employment. 

Things took a more complicated tone when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Philippines in March 2020.  

Health and safety became a major concern. The Department of Health, through the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, stepped in to ensure that health protocols are in place during filming.

Industry people moved fast not only to assist workers displaced by the pandemic but also to organize themselves to discuss pertinent issues. 

Aktor, the League of Filipino Workers was the first to organize through the initiatives of Dingdong Dantes, Agot Isidro, Iza Calzado and a few others. Soon, other guilds were formed and were mobilized under the banner of the Inter-Guild Alliance (IGA), which was first led by director Paolo Villaluna, indie producer Patti Lapus and assistant director Mara Marasigan. 

The IGA rallied behind the Eddie Garcia Bill and other legislative proposals concerning mass media and the arts. 

In November 2020, the House of Representatives approved House Bill (HB) No. 7762, called the Eddie Garcia Act. However, the counterpart measure filed by Sen. Bong Revilla did not make it to a final reading.

HB1270, a consolidated version of six related measures, was filed in 2022 and was approved by the House in February 2023.  

It took the Senate a year to pass a similar bill, after a series of meetings and consultations with various stakeholders. 

Significant provisions

The measure follows the Labor Code stipulation of an 8-hour workday that can be extended to 14 hours depending on the particularity of a film or tv drama shoot. This provision, however, does not include meal time and is not clear on when the official time starts and ends.  A position paper submitted by the IGA proposes that the time start on the ingress of the first person on the set and end on tail lights when the last person leaves the set.  

Despite this gray area, the issue of defined work hours is a relief for film and TV workers who have had to work for more than 24 hours a day for a shoot.

Likewise, pre-production work such as ocular visits and preparations will be considered work and will be compensated.

The bill also recognizes workers’ rights to self-organization, and to engage in concerted activities that are not contrary to law. 

All workers will be bound to a contract for every project in which the nature of the job, wages and other conditions shall be made clear. Any worker may refuse to perform an act or job if it appears that his or her health and safety will be endangered.  

Provisions concerning discrimination and the creation of a safe space are included in the bill to prevent harassment and bullying on the set. 

There is also a provision on the right to remuneration in accordance with the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, which provides that a creator or worker shall enjoy additional payment for every subsequent use, exhibit, broadcast or screening of a performance or intellectual property. 

The bicameral conference is yet to be scheduled, but with both chambers of Congress unanimously approving their own version of the proposed Eddie Garcia Act, industry leaders and workers are expecting the measure to be passed soon. 

With it, Eddie Garcia’s legacy will live on.

Read more: ‘What film can do more than what film can say’

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