Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri on Monday, February 20, announced that the Senate is increasing this year’s inflationary adjustment aid to its employees.

From P12,000, the Senate increased the amount to P50,000, which the employees will receive in August 2023.

“(This is) to help you all deal with your daily expenses, we have improved the inflationary adjustment assistance. Tumaas ang inflation. Dapat itaas din natin ang assistance (Inflation increased. So assistance should also be increased),” Zubiri said during the Senate’s flag raising ceremony.

Zubiri said all 3,000 employees of the Senate will receive the one-time inflationary assistance.

The Upper Chamber also increased the medical assistance for its employees from P30,000 to P50,000, which they will receive in September.

According to Zubiri, the incentives will come are from the Senate’s savings.

“Ginamit po namin ang savings kapag nagkakasavings kami sa Senado dinaragdagan namin ang incentives para sa mga empleyado namin (We used the savings because when we had savings in the Senate we increase the incentives for our employees),” he said.

At the same time, the Senate leader urged the employees to spend less so the employees can receive more.

“Ang pakiusap ko nga kanina na sana we spend less on paper, we spend less on overtime para maibalik din sa mga empleyado itong savings na natatanggap namin in terms of incentives and bonuses para ganun ay napakaganda ng trabaho ng ating empleyado at nakikita n’yo naman highly motivated sila (I asked them to spend less on paper and less on overtime so we can give back to our employees these savings we receive in terms of incentives and bonuses so that in return our employees can work better and you can see they are highly motivated),” he said.

Likewise, Zubiri said he supports proposals to increase the minimum wage, especially for the private sector.

“Ako ay sumusuporta para itaas ang (I support moves to increase the) minimum wage. The minimum wage is not necessarily a living wage. Ang living wage natin ngayon ay mataas sa minimum wage. Ibig ko pong sabihin bitin ang minimum wage sa ating mga manggagawa (Our living wage today is higher than the minimum wage. I mea the minimum wage of our workers is lacking),” he said.

“If you ask me everybody should share including the private sector so okay sa akin na itaas ang minimum wage ng ating mga kababayan at dapat itaas agad dahil medyo ang inflation ay tumataas na rin kaya kailangan tulungan natin ang ating mga kababayan.

“Ako ay sumusuporta sa planong itaas ang (I am supporting plans to increase the) minimum wage. The minimum wage is not necessarily a living wage. Ang (Our) living wage po natin ngayon ay mataas sa (is higher than the) minimum wage,” he said.

"If you ask me everybody should share including the private sector so it's okay with me to raise the minimum wage of our compatriots and it should be raised immediately because inflation is rising quite a bit so we need to help our compatriots,” he said.