Businessman Rene G. Romero believes that to sustain their families, workers should have a daily minimum wage of P1,000 instead of the current P450.
The Chairman and President of the Romac Group, Romero was one of the guests in the January edition of KapiHann, the monthly press briefing of the Pampanga Press Club, in partnership with Hann Resorts.
Romero expressed guilt that workers receive P450 a day and have to feed their family. It’s not even enough to buy a kilo of onions.
According to Romero, increasing the minimum wage would also “strengthen the purchasing power of the workers. The more people that spend, the better the economy would be.”
He explained that the “Expected GDP is 6.5 to 7.5, although some pessimists would say it’s only 5.5. But whether the GDP is high or low, the government must come up with programs to mitigate the reasons why our expected GDP is not stable.”
Romero also observed that the GDP increased in 2022 because of ‘revenge consumerism’.
The businessman feels that inflation and the threat to food security will linger “particularly in the first semester of 2023.”
He believes that the government should encourage the use of resilient seedlings that may have a stronger chance at surviving climate change-driven conditions.
“I will consider 2023 as the final transition year from the pandemic and other disruptions. We are on the road to recovery. By the middle of the year, the recovery will reach its goal, and the last quarter of 2023 may be the preparation for a good 2024.”