A POLITICAL GROUP on Monday raised concerns over the possibility that a government cash-aid program for poor workers could be used as a tool to engage in “vote-buying” for the upcoming 2025 midterm elections.
Lawmakers should instead look at hiking workers’ minimum wages instead of institutionalizing the Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), said Renee Louise M. Co, spokesperson of party-list group Kabataan.
AKAP is a social welfare scheme that provides one-time cash assistance worth P3,000 to P5,000 to workers whose income falls below the poverty threshold.
“If Congress really cared for the welfare of the underpaid and overworked labor force, which is the main target of the AKAP, it would have legislated wage hikes and reforms,” she said in a statement in Filipino.
“It appears that the elected officials really don’t care about our fellow workers unless they can use their support in the 2025 elections. This can be used for vote-buying. This is not the help that workers need and deserve,” she added.
Measures seeking to legislate an across-the-board wage hike were stalled in Congress.
The Senate in February already passed a bill granting a P100 wage hike for private sector workers, while the House of Representatives labor panel is yet to approve a counterpart measure. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
