New kids on the block’s folly

Albay 3rd District Representative Raymond Adrian Salceda has filed House Bill 55, or the Equal Pay For Equal Work Act, which seeks to abolish regional boards and establish a single national living wage within five years. The following narrative was lifted from his press release.

Alongside this, he is initiating the formation of a Fair Wage Bloc in Congress which is a coalition of first-term lawmakers united on labor issues.

Conversations with fellow freshmen, including Manggagawa Partylist Representative Eli San Fernando who also filed a Fair Wage bill, are ongoing.

According to Congressman Salceda, the bloc need not be formally led by him as its strength lies in consistently advancing pro-worker measures.

While the national living wage serves as the cornerstone of its advocacy, the group is exploring a wider labor reform agenda such as: wage parity and equal pay protections for women and vulnerable workers; expanded social protection benefits; stronger labor inspections and enforcement, especially in the informal sector; protection of workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain; and safeguards for gig economy workers, including minimum pay standards and portable benefits.

Salceda emphasized that improving the workers’ welfare is key to inclusive growth, asserting that labor is the primary driving force of economic development. End of his press release.

The neophyte congressman enters the House with all the flourish of a crusader for labor. He rattles off the above laundry list of advocacies designed to win applause from the “exploited” labor.

We have heard these promises before. They are recycled from international labor conventions, past committee hearings, and decades of reform agendas that mostly remain ink on paper due to the hard economic reality.

What the young lawmaker offers is not a plan but a manifesto of hope that is costly to fund and risky for small businesses.

Declaring a national living wage sounds heroic, expanding benefits is noble, and strengthening inspections is vital. But noble intentions without economic grounding can collapse under their own weight.

The danger here is not the advocacy itself but in the approach. The congressman’s advocacy smacks of populism — easy quotable lines crafted for headlines, rather than workable legislation. He is trying too hard to be noticed but he risks becoming another traditional politician who mistakes rhetoric for reform.

The Filipino worker deserves more than recycled talking points. He deserves serious legislation backed by numbers, strategy, and sound economic data.

Freshmen lawmakers should learn that in Congress, it is better to deliver substance than to mouth slogans.

The principle of equal pay for equal work at its core means two people performing the same task, with the same level of skill and effort, who deserve the same salary for that work. It’s morally rooted in fairness and justice.

But reality check: wages are influenced by local or regional economics and what is fair in one region may be inadequate or excessive in another.

Perhaps the honorable neophyte congressman is driven by a fractured idealism deep-seated in impractical reality.

Generosity is admirable but generosity with other people’s money, absent a realistic and practical strategy, is reckless. Delusive dreams may stir a standing ovation today but they risk becoming tomorrow’s disappointment.

A true vision is not measured by the grandeur of its promises but by its capacity to be carried out, tested, and sustained. Reform is not forged in press releases but in careful analyses of the situation and pragmatic implementation. Otherwise, what masquerades as hope becomes folly, and what is hailed as noble may turn dangerous for those who dare to believe in it.