Daily wage earners in Bohol 

working on Aug 21 get P878 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, August 18 (PIA)—For rendering work on August 21, a minimum wage earner in Bohol could get at least P878.80. 

As the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board nailed the minimum daily wage in Bohol at P338.00, by application of the double pay rule for regular holidays and 30% for special non-working holidays, excluding the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), a daily wage earner can earn such for a day. 

Why such? 

By Presidential Proclamation 556, which pegged the holiest Muslim Festival this year on August 21 per recommendation by the Commission on Muslim Filipinos, by operation of law on regular holidays, those working on the day receives double the daily wage. 

But by the same proclamation, the regular holiday incidentally sits on top of another special non-working holiday. 

By Presidential Proclamation 269, which has declared the commemoration of August 21 as an annual special non-working holiday to mark Ninoy Aquino Day, the day now offers more pay for workers. 

For special non-working holidays, the Department of Labor and Employment, through a Labor Advisory issued in 2017, ruled that a daily wage earner gets 100% of daily wage plus 30% for the day’s work rendered. 

By both regular and special non-working holiday falling on the same day, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has ruled that for work performed on August 21, 2018, a double pay applies for the regular holiday, for basic pay and Cost of Living allowance. 

Moreover, since the day is also a special non-working holiday, aside from the double the daily pay, a worker gets 30% of the doubled pay as a premium for his work, NWPC shared in their social media account. 

Computation: 

For Bohol for example, with the daily wage now at P338, by application of the regular holiday pay rule, work rendered on the day means a worker can take home P676. 

But with still another holiday: special non-working holiday for the day, a worker can still get 30% of the P676, thus his take home for the day owing to the two holidays is P878.00 at least. 

This does not count the COLA that workers may receive, depending on their applicable employer-employee agreements and collective bargaining agreement provisions. 

As this develops, the same Presidential Proclamation 556 finally settles the confusion among workers who have been expecting the Eid’l Adha to be set on the 22. 

Eid’l Adha, or the holiest festival among the Muslim community, commemorates the Feast of the Sacrifice, the holier of the two big feasts; one being Eid’l Fit’r or Breaking of the Fast. 

As narrated in the Quran: Muslim bible, Eid’l-Adha retells the story of the prophet Ibrahim, who with his wife were in their old age but still longed for a child. 

But with their faith in Allah, they got a son, but as a test of his willingness to sacrifice his only son, Allah instructed Ibrahim to sacrifice his son. 

As they were on their way to Mecca to carry out the task, the devil repeatedly tempted them to break their faith. The couple threw stones at the devil to drive him away. 

The stoning of them devil incidentally also forms part of the Hajj, where pilgrims throw stones at symbolic pillars, an act of ‘stoning of the devil,’ and in commemoration of the couple’s rejection of Satan. 

As Ibrahim was about to slay his son in sacrifice, Allah stopped him and presented an animal entangled in a bush, which became Ibrahim’s slaughtered sacrifice. 

In commemoration of Ibrahim’s love for god and this ultimate act of devotion, Muslims honor the day by sacrificing an animal on Eid’l-Adha, the animal divided into three parts: one third to be given to the poor, another third for their relatives and another third for the family to share. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)