A partylist lawmaker and a coalition of labor unions petitioned the Supreme Court on Wednesday to annul trial court orders that halted the implementation of a P85 minimum wage increase for workers in the National Capital Region.

The petition for certiorari and prohibition — filed by Kamanggagawa Partylist Rep. Elijah Rumbaoa San Fernando alongside the Federation of Free Workers, Partido Manggagawa, and several other labor organizations — asks the high bench to set aside a 24 July status quo ante order and a July 30 temporary restraining order issued by the Pasig Regional Trial Court.

The Pasig RTC’s 30 July TRO temporarily suspended Wage Order No. NCR-27 until 13 August pending hearings on a preliminary injunction filed by employer groups seeking declaratory relief.

Represented by lawyer Jose Sonny G. Matula, the petitioners argued that the trial court orders are “patent nullities,” citing provisions in the Labor Code that expressly prohibit courts from issuing injunctions against wage orders.

They asserted that employers seeking to challenge wage adjustments must appeal to the National Wages and Productivity Commission under Article 123 of the Labor Code, rather than filing petitions for declaratory relief in regional trial courts.

“It is the first time in history that a Petition for Declaratory Relief at the RTC would be used against a mandated wage order,” San Fernando said. “The Supreme Court must release a clear decision to serve as guidance and a warning for courts and lawyers to avoid using technicalities to deny workers a decent livelihood.”

San Fernando added that if regional trial courts are allowed to freeze wage mandates, “we can also expect that proposed wage increases for provinces would also be frozen by big companies one by one.”

Under Wage Order No. NCR-27, issued 23 June, minimum wage earners in Metro Manila were set to receive a P60 daily increase effective 25 July, followed by an additional P25 increase on 10 January 2027.

The P85 total adjustment would raise the region’s daily minimum wage from P695 to P780, affecting more than 1.1 million minimum wage workers.

“For someone earning P695 a day, P60 is not an abstract constitutional question,” the petitioners said in their filing. “It is rice, fare, medicine, electricity, or lunch money.”

The petitioners urged the Supreme Court to take direct cognizance of the case under the doctrines of transcendental importance and patent nullity, requesting authoritative legal guidance to prevent lower courts from entertaining similar petitions against future wage orders.

The labor filing follows a Senate resolution adopted unanimously on 4 August that urged the immediate lifting of the TRO and called for judicial restraint on matters assigned by law to regional wage boards.