The National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP-TUCP) issued a mixed assessment of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA), praising its immediate economic relief measures while criticizing the administration’s silence on wage stagnation and ongoing troubles in the sugar sector.
NACUSIP-TUCP National President Roland de la Cruz commended the executive branch’s directives aimed at easing burdens on low- and middle-income families, specifically backing the expansion of the annual minimum taxable income threshold, electricity rate relief interventions, and optimized financial safety nets.
However, the labor group raised serious concerns over the absence of long-term solutions for workers, emphasizing that targeted tax relief fails to resolve systemic issues surrounding frozen salaries during persistent inflation.
“While tax exemptions and subsidies offer vital breathing room, they do not solve the fundamental crisis of frozen salaries,” de la Cruz said.
“With headline inflation averaging 4.8 percent in the first half of this year, the real purchasing power of the Filipino worker continues to erode. A taxpayer earning under ₱350,000 still cannot survive if their nominal wage remains entirely stagnant against skyrocketing basic goods,” he said.
De la Cruz also cited major regulatory missteps affecting sugar workers, pointing to recent refined sugar imports approved under Sugar Order 8 that depressed millsite prices, as well as the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) reactive handling of the Red-Striped Soft Scale Insect infestation that left thousands of sugarcane farmers displaced.
NACUSIP-TUCP slammed previous RSSI mitigation efforts as “wasteful,” forcing the government into a last-minute ₱235 million emergency assistance package to bail out 12,400 displaced sugarcane farmers.
NACUSIP-TUCP, working hand-in-hand with Deputy Speaker Mendoza and other legislative allies, vows to fiercely lobby the current session of Congress to bridge these executive gaps. De la Cruz said.
The labor organization is demanding a legislated national wage recovery mechanism and immediate structural reforms within the SRA to protect local sugar industry and rural livelihoods.*
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