House lawmakers: Upper-middle income status hides wealth gap

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers yesterday slammed the administration’s economic milestones, asserting that international accolades mask a deep-seated wage crisis that has left millions of Filipinos impoverished and saddled with the highest workplace stress in Southeast Asia.

ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio dismissed Malacañang’s boast that the Philippines has entered the ranks of upper-middle income countries based on the World Bank’s classification, arguing that Gross National Income per capita hides a widening wealth gap where only a handful of conglomerates and “dollar trillionaires” controlling the oil, water and infrastructure sectors profit.

“Millions of Filipinos cannot eat what Malacañang is now boasting about,” Tinio said.

For many Filipinos, he noted, widespread joblessness, low wages and hunger continue to force them to seek work abroad, underscoring the need for national industrialization and agrarian reform.

Meanwhile, Kamanggagawa party-list Rep. Eli San Fernando cited the newly released Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, which found that 50 percent of Filipino workers experienced stress “a lot of the day” in 2025, which is double the Southeast Asian average of 25 percent and higher than neighboring Vietnam’s 13 percent.

San Fernando tagged sub-poverty wages, rather than psychological burnout, as the root cause of the workforce’s chronic anxiety.

According to Gallup, 55 percent of local employees are actively considering leaving their jobs, while only 41 percent feel in control of their anxiety.

“Overworked, underserved by public services, overtaxed from every direction and, most of all, severely underpaid,” San Fernando said, adding that the crisis “is not something that can be addressed through resilience seminars, mental health tips or company outings.”

To alleviate the pressure, San Fernando urged the immediate passage of House Bill 8081, which seeks to enact a P200 nationwide legislated wage increase and permanently abolish discriminatory provincial wage rates.