These immortal words from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar have endured because they capture a painful truth. The deepest wounds are often inflicted not by enemies but by those in whom we place our trust.

That was how employers felt after the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board for the National Capital Region issued Wage Order NCR 27 granting a historic P85 daily minimum wage increase only four days after the new DoLE secretary assured the business community that wage adjustments under his watch would be predictable, gradual, calibrated and affordable.

Secretary Francis Tolentino had barely been in office a month when he addressed the Employers Confederation of the Philippines on 26 June. His message inspired confidence.

He presented a Progressive Wage Model patterned after Singapore’s productivity-driven system, where higher wages are earned through better skills, experience, and productivity. It was a sensible framework that linked wage growth to productivity while preserving enterprise competitiveness and job creation.

He emphasized that sustainable employment rests on two inseparable pillars — worker protection and enterprise viability. He pledged productivity training through TESDA in partnership with employers and assured investors that Philippine labor policies would be rational, stable, predictable and anchored on consultation.

Employers in attendance responded with a standing ovation. They believed a new era of policy consistency had begun.

Then came 30 June.

The NCR Wage Board approved the largest single wage increase in Metro Manila’s history.

Ironically, neither labor nor employers welcomed the decision. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines dismissed it as “kulang at nakakagalit” (grossly inadequate and infuriating).

Employers described it as ill-timed, excessive, and unaffordable. Many warned that it would discourage investment and threaten employment, particularly among micro, small and medium enterprises.

The numbers deserve careful reflection.

The Philippine labor force is estimated at about 51 million workers. Around 40 million belong to the informal economy and receive absolutely no direct benefit from any wage order. Of the remaining 11 million in the formal sector, only about 1.2 million minimum wage earners, or roughly 2 percent of the total workforce, stand to benefit directly.

Yet a policy that directly benefits only 2 percent inevitably shifts the burden to the remaining 98 percent through higher prices, slower hiring, deferred investments, restrained business expansion, and fewer employment opportunities. That is a tradeoff policymakers should never ignore.

Moreover, the P85 increase tells only part of the story. Employers must also absorb wage distortions, overtime pay, holiday pay, premium pay, 13th-month pay, Social Security contributions, and other statutory benefits. Together, these raise the effective cost by roughly another 30 percent, bringing the additional labor cost to about P110 per worker per day.

For many MSMEs operating on razor-thin margins and a hand-to-mouth existence, that could mean postponing expansion, freezing hiring, reducing their workforce, accelerating automation, or closing altogether. Ironically, the unintended casualties may be the very workers the wage order seeks to protect.

Only four days earlier, Secretary Tolentino himself had declared that enterprise viability is indispensable to sustainable employment.

Employers are therefore asking one simple question.

What happened between 26 June and 30 June?

Was the Progressive Wage Model merely an inspiring speech that earned applause? Or did the approval of the largest wage increase in NCR history signal an abrupt departure from the very principles of predictability, gradualism, affordability, and consultation that the secretary had just pledged to uphold?

For public officials, credibility is their most valuable asset. It is built slowly through consistency, transparency, and predictability, but it can be diminished almost overnight. Once confidence is shaken, even well-intentioned policies are viewed with doubt.

Secretary Tolentino has repeatedly reminded employers that his tenure at the Department of Labor and Employment is not a lifetime career. That is precisely why every policy pronouncement must be deliberate and every decision carefully weighed. Public office is temporary. The consequences of public policy are not.

The real disappointment is not merely the size of the wage increase. It is the perception that, only four days after presenting employers with a vision of stability, predictability, and genuine consultation, the government acted in a manner that appeared inconsistent with its own assurances.

Trust, once lost, is difficult to rebuild. Investors value policy consistency as much as fiscal incentives. When confidence weakens, investment slows, expansion is deferred, and job creation becomes the first casualty.

Ultimately, the issue is larger than a P85 wage increase. It is whether the business community can continue to rely on the government’s word.

And that, perhaps, explains why Shakespeare’s timeless lament still echoes today.

Et tu, Brute?