Bizmen -- Big pay hikes
difficult, inflationary now
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Business leaders in Negros Occidental yesterday said the P125 daily wage increase being sought by labor is not affordable to management.

However, Roberto Montelibano, president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and James Chua, president of the Bacolod Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they are leaving it to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board to decide on what is best for Western Visayas.

The Wage Increase Solidarity-Negros filed a petition Tuesday before the RTWPB for a P125 across-the-board daily wage increase in Western Visayas stressing that the P50 wage hike demanded by the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines is unacceptable..

Renewing calls for change of leadership in the national government and immediate implementation of P125 wage increase, about 4,000 members of various labor organizations in Negros Occidental held separate protest actions yesterday to mark International Labor Day.

Joining the rally spearheaded by the Kilusang Mayo Uno at the Bacolod City Public Plaza, members of the Confederation for the Unity and Recognition of Government Employees criticized the 10 percent salary increase for government workers and non-wage benefits promised by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, calling it an insult to the workers.

COURAGE-Negros secretary-general Dan Alcoriza said the government has miserably failed to address the worsening economic crisis in the country and the 10 percent pay hike is a pittance of what the employees actually need.

The police yesterday said a big syndicate could be behind the circulation of fake Social Security System checks, after the arrest of two people who transacted with a business establishment using a forged SSS document in Bacolod City Wednesday.

Police Station 6 commander, Chief Inspector Ulysses Ortiz, said that a bigger syndicate could be behind the operations of Roy Aquino of Bago City, Negros Occidental, and Analyn Ancheta of Brgy. Singcang-Airport, Bacolod.

Aquino and Ancheta were nabbed by the group of Ortiz Wednesday after they allegedly bought a 13-plate car battery worth P2,800 from SGB Tire Supply in Bacolod using an SSS check for P7,000.