THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has denounced the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the National Capital Region (NCR) Wage Board for allegedly being duplicitous and playing politics in dismissing the original TUCP wage petition that proposes raising the minimum wage to P1,007 per day.“TUCP is outraged and fears that the DOLE and wage boards are just ‘dribbling the ball’ to calm down the fears of workers now facing hunger as cost-of-living escalates. TUCP condemns this apparent insincerity of the DOLE and wage board as the height of insensitivity to the real hunger being faced by our minimum wage earners,” said TUCP President Raymond Mendoza.DOLE-NCR Director Sarah B. Mirasol, the chairperson of the NCR Wage Board, said they may finish the process of consultations and deliberations on the pending wage petitions on May 5, 2022.“The TUCP is enraged at this business-as-usual, bureaucratic, time-consuming, technically tedious response of the wage board which will further push under the workers who are trying to keep their heads above the rising waters of higher and higher cost of living,” Mendoza said.Mendoza added that the DOLE and the NCR Wage Board are “not serious about providing an urgent economic relief to our minimum wage earners and their families who are now suffering from hunger and malnutrition.”The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that inflation rate in March has climbed to four percent further demonstrating that the cost of goods and services is already beyond the reach of minimum-wage-earning families.“Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo (What would be the use of grass if the horse is already dead)? Our workers need wage adjustments now, not later when they are already in the brink of starvation,” said Mendoza. (PR)