Trickle or trick

Trickle or trick

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was said to have been euphoric Thursday as she announced the strong performance of the Philippine economy in the second quarter of the year. And quite understandably so. The economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew by 7.5 percent in the period from April to June, a growth rate that exceeded not only the government’s forecast of 6.6 percent but even the most optimistic expectations. It was, as Ms Arroyo proudly pointed out, the highest growth in any quarter in the past 20 years, keeping intact the series of successive growth during her six years in office. That is a record unmatched by any other administration, she added. And it came after an already healthy first quarter growth of 7.1 percent -- better than the 6.9 percent growth earlier estimated by the National Statistical Coordination Board.

This is certainly good news for everyone but those who do not wish the Arroyo administration well. But can such growth, which is still slow by Asian standards, be sustained? Businessmen and economists, who were just as elated as the President was over this year’s economic performance so far, see the economy continuing to grow for the rest of the year, but at a slower pace. Ms Arroyo herself said the government would stick to its full-year growth target of between 6.1 percent and 6.7 percent, which means essentially the same as what the businessmen are seeing: a slight slowdown in the second half.

The reason is that some of the main drivers behind the unexpectedly robust growth in the second quarter will either become weaker or even be gone. Election-related spending, for instance, will no longer be there to boost consumption, which expanded by 6.0 percent during the quarter; and construction whose growth was propelled by a 39.6 percent increase in government spending on infrastructure. For the short term, mining is expected to power the growth of the industry sector as foreign investments continue to pour in, and business process outsourcing, which mainly involves call-center operations, should keep the growth in services healthy. But it is doubtful whether these two growth centers by themselves can pull the economy as a whole to a vigorous level of growth.

Giving her administration a pat on the back, the President declared that the remarkable performance of the economy showed that “our economic plans succeeded.” Said she: “No one thought that we could get more revenues, cut down on tax cheats, strengthen the peso and move the stock market. No one thought, we could bring our budget into balance, repay our debts and increase jobs, but we have done it.”

As far as those things are concerned, the review should be mixed. For one thing, the administration cannot claim all the credit for the stronger peso, without ignoring the more significant contribution of the inward remittances of overseas Filipino workers. Revenue collections may be higher in the last two years, but that is largely the result of the introduction of new tax measures, particularly the increase to 12 percent of the value-added tax. In fact, collections of both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs fell short of target during the first half of 2007, and now their chiefs are seeking lower collection targets for next year, even as the government seeks to increase its expenditure program to P1.227 trillion. True, a part of the country’s debts have been retired sooner than planned, but the government has not balanced its budget yet. Neither has it made a lot of headway in going after tax cheats as well as corrupt officials not only in the BIR and Customs but in the entire government bureaucracy.

Job creation? That is still one of the weakest points of the administration. Senate President Manuel Villar pointed out that 2.7 million Filipinos remain jobless while close to 6.4 million are holding either part-time jobs or jobs in which their education, training or talents are not being fully utilized. The bellwether of economic progress, he said, should be whether or not this army of unemployed and underemployed benefits from the growth being touted by the administration.

Apparently, years of growth has not opened more jobs or created the kind of jobs that put a little more food on the table for millions of Filipino families. Ms Arroyo has to do a lot more to ensure that the benefits of growth trickle down to those who need them most. Otherwise, as Villar put it, people might think they are being tricked to believe there is progress.

Superannuated soldiers

Superannuated soldiers

It’s amazing, what one learns everyday. There’s a factoid which recently caught our attention. And our leaders said while it is worrisome, it is not really a serious problem. The average age of our soldiers is 44. But not to worry, according to the AFP leadership, the superannuated soldiers are assigned to office jobs. So there is really no degradation of fighting ability. Moreover, these soldiers need their jobs. Where will they go if not to the ranks of jobless if they are separated from the service?

Here we are again seeing our tendency of grabbing the bull by the tail whenever we are faced with an anomaly that requires correction. For the issue is not about the quality of the fighting men we are sending to the front lines. Or of providing opportunities for those who otherwise could not find a job.

Since the enactment of Commonwealth Act No. 1, the defense of the Republic has always been considered the duty of every citizen. The professional armed forces are meant to serve as the cadre organization – that is, the backbone – of a citizen’s army. This is in recognition of the reality that the Philippines, or any modern country for that matter, cannot afford to maintain a huge standing army in proportion to its population.

So how do we ensure that full-time farmers, factory hands and clerks can answer the call in the event the balloon goes up? They are supposed to serve in the military for a short period in their adult life, three years if our information is still current. They gain the skills and the discipline for waging war and, as a bonus, such skills may prove useful when they return to civilian life.

The idea is for the pipeline to have regular batches of trainees at the intake while disgorging those who have already served at the other end. The result is a steady stream of trained men organized into the reserves.

Military service need not even be universal. There is an excess of 18-year-olds and above volunteering to join the AFP. The training program, thus, need not be frightfully expensive.

Everything we have said above is nothing new. The puzzle is why AFP leaders have all but forgotten their lessons during their plebe year at the PMA.

And while we’re at it, while the AFP is neglecting the basics, why is the PNP divided into "commissioned" and "non-commissioned officers," following military practice, when it is by law a professional and civilian organization?

More on this some other time.

Helping ‘little’ people to hope big

Helping ‘little’ people to hope big

ANY news about anyone helping "little" or poor people in a big way is good news. About the best piece of news this week – after a series of unhappy events in Basilan and Sulu, and the sudden, controversial and mostly inexplicable reshuffling of high officials in the DENR, DOE, CHED, NEDA and the National Telecommunications Commission plus the relocation of DAR and Philippine Army Headquarters to Mindanao – was PGMA’s order to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) last 11 August to stop the lotto price increase from R10 to R20. The Philippine Star in a report by Paolo Romero (11 August) quoted Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Director General (Secretary) Cerge Remonde that "PGMA instructed him to relay her order to PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte. The PCSO earlier announced the increase will take effect on 15 August." The same Star story went further: "Government believes stopping the increase in lotto ticket prices would prevent many players, especially in the provinces, from engaging in jueteng, an illegal numbers game now in decline.... Many lotto players are poor people hoping to be multi-millionaires."

Hope for the poor

A related article of the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Jeannette Andrade and Juliet Labog-Javellana (11 August) stated: "Remonde said the President stopped the planned increase because of public sentiment. He added that increasing the price could also drive the public to patronize illegal numbers games. The Inquirer interviewed loyal patrons of lotto who claimed the doubled price would make it doubly difficult for them to hit the jackpot. Houseboy Eric Estabaya of Cubao, Quezon City buys lotto tickets on a daily basis. When he learned that the price would double effective 15 August, he said he would just bet once a week. ‘R20 is expensive for me and, I expect, also for other bettors…’ Eric earns a salary of R4,000 monthly and has two children while his wife is unemployed."

According to Star’s Mayen Jaymalin (15 August): "Many Filipinos and other workers in Asia are still living poorly, trying to make both ends meet with R90 a day, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said… In its report "Visions for Asia’s Decent Work Decade: Sustainable Growth and Jobs to 2015," the ILO affirmed that efforts of various governments in Asia seem not enough to improve the quality of jobs. The report noted that over one billion or 61.9 percent of the workforce in Asia, including the Philippines, are still in the informal economy, with little or no social protection."

Testing and capturing the market

It would have been simpler for the PCSO first to "test the market" by commissioning an outfit like the Social Weather Stations (SWS) or any other reliable polling group to determine from a random sample of the A, B, C, D, and E classes their reaction to a price increase before its implementation. Worldwide, lotto is classified as "amusement" and not "gambling." It is such a universally accepted pastime that even the Vatican had not made any pronouncement against it. The Church itself openly avails of lotto, bingo and sweepstakes – which operate within the PCSO charter – to raise funds for charity. Lotto is attractive to common people precisely because of its cheap price (less than a kilo of rice or a few cigarettes) enabling them to risk a modest stake regularly. Herein lies their hope to lift their lives. Like all other massbased numbers games, hope is what keeps the PCSO going and it is hope, no matter how seemingly remote or unreachable, that captures the market.

Thus, it has to be priced within the regular reach of the masses because the odds against winning are so great that only a few really win with each draw while the vast majority loses. But because the loss is affordable to ordinary people, they keep coming back for another try. The computerized/automated PCSO lottery is so designed that, since 1995, it has been able to raise ample funds for charity and social programs. Lotto is a cheap game of chance, and is actually a form of voluntary taxation that should not be seen as an expense. Through lotto, the PCSO is selling hope to "little" people in a big way – and has been doing a good job of it over the years.

Economic bad news

Directly related to the good news is the bad news from the economic sector. The more obvious, day-to-day signs of negative developments are the long lines of people in the DFA passport offices, recruitment agencies for both local and foreign job vacancies, and various TV game shows for small cash prizes.

"More Filipinos Hopeful of Their Lot in 12 Months" banners BusinessWorld (13 August) as reported by Josefa Therese Cagoco. Analyzing the SWS second-quarter survey on "Change in Quality of Life," she reveals the hope of ordinary Filipinos "to have better lives in the next year," while at the same time baring their present difficult conditions, thus: "The survey, from 27 to 30 June among 1,200 respondents nationwide, showed 32% of Filipinos were optimistic about improvement in their Personal Quality of Life in 12 months, while 11% believed their lot would worsen. Hence, Net Personal Optimism stood at +22, higher than last quarter’s +20, and the second highest score under the Arroyo administration after a +29 recorded in November 2006. SWS said Net Personal Optimism has historically ranged from +10 to +19. From April 1984 to this quarter, this averaged +14, with optimists (32%) outnumbering pessimists (18%). The two quarters surveyed under the Marcos regime showed net scores of –4 and +10. During Aquino’s term, a high of +31 and a low of +7 were recorded, while under Ramos, it reached +33 twice, but dipped to +6. The high score under Estrada was +26, while neutral ratings were recorded twice. Under Arroyo, net optimism sunk to negative thrice, the worst at –13 in March 2005."

A timeline graph of abovecited data shows much more optimism than pessimism during the Aquino and Ramos administrations (in spite of coup attempts, energy crisis, Gulf War, and rice shortage) than the Estrada and Arroyo periods (because of currency crisis, Mindanao, Abu Sayyaf, juetengate, US-Iraq War, and steep oil price hikes).

Prospects for agriculture

Add to this Amy Remo’s Inquirer report (14 August) on the lowered expectations of farm sector growth from 5.0% to 3.5%: "Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap conceded last week that production targets this year were no longer within reach. Yap traced the slower growth in the first half to the dry spell and the fact that the private sector did not load up on supplies during the first quarter because of sufficient stocks. Agriculture accounts for one-fifth of the domestic economy." This projection was seconded in BusinessWorld by Raymond Jude Dumaual (14 August): "Rolando T. Dy, Executive Director of the Center for Food and Agri-Business of the University of Asia and the Pacific, said the original government target will now be difficult to achieve. ‘We will be lucky to attain a growth of 2% – 3%. The impact of the lack of rain will be carried over to the second semester, especially since the planting season has been delayed,’ Dy said."

The Bernardo report

The first-quarter GDP growth of 6.9%, already well analyzed by economists Cielito Habito and Romeo Bernardo, is benefitting mainly the elite because the boom is mostly in the property and real estate sector. In contrast, jobs for the rural poor are not being generated because of timidity of capital to invest in agriculture where most of our underemployed and jobless are situated.

Quoting Bernardo’s "Special Report on the Philippines" dated 31 July 2007: "In comparison to services, the agriculture industry appears locked in a timewarp with its fortunes and contribution to growth tied to weather.... In manufacturing, despite ten years of a weeding out process of inefficient firms after the Asian crisis, investments in the sector’s productive capacity have not happened, a development that has to be seen in the light of China’s competitive advantage in manufacturing. The inability of said sector, which comprised 24% of GDP in 2006, to generate sufficient local employment in turn helps to explain the exodus of Filipino workers and the remittance phenomenon… Reported slippages in the 2007 1st semester collections of the two main revenue agencies (10% behind target), has renewed market worries about government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation."

Cheaper medicines

Beyond the poor’s hope for a lottery prize is their need for cheaper medicines. Butch Fernandez reported in the BusinessMirror, (14 August): "Sen. Mar Roxas II, Chairman of the Committee on Trade and Commerce, saw no problem in fasttracking approval of the bill, noting the same proposal had been approved on third reading by the Senate in the last Congress.... The bill, however, got snagged in the House which failed to pass its counterpart bill owing to lack of quorum." The Roxas bill for cheaper medicines basically opens up competition in the pharmaceuticals market.

As the bickering on Committee chairmanships ends in both Chambers, it is high time for our lawmakers to concentrate on helping the little people among us. Now is also high time for Malacañang and Congress to focus their newlyfound LEDAC teamwork on lifting ordinary Filipinos whose condition has not significantly improved.

And, speaking of competition and little people, are there any concerned Filipinos out there willing to help a small guy named Justin Junio, who at age five swam 6 kilometers across the MactanCebu channel in October 2006? His father Jose (a retired Air Force veteran on a modest pension) informed me that Justin is training to break the San Francisco-Alcatraz channel swim record held by a seven-year old from Arizona.

Achieving the improbable

Remember the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition that achieved the improbable with our support, thus proving the mettle of Filipino youth, in 2006-2007? Let us do it again for swimmer Justin Junio.

The Achilles’ heel of RP’s

The Achilles’ heel of RP’s

Of the estimated 8 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) worldwide, women, who outnumber the men, are the most vulnerable to employers’ abuse and exploitation. They are the Achilles’ heel of the country’s migration program.

Female OFWs have spread all over the globe to find work. Nurses and caregivers abound in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and other rich nations suffering from the acute shortage of medical workers. South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore teem with women factory workers. Domestic helpers are found in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Italy and the Middle East.

Many DHs are exposed to employers’ maltreatment, nonpayment or underpayment of salary, contract substitution, long working hours and sexual abuse. The videoed rape of “Melissa,” a maid in Saudi Arabia, by her employer, underscores the impunity with which depraved employers treat their Filipino maids.

When I was in Singapore as labor attaché, a Filipino maid, who lost her mind following an attempt by her employer, jumped to her death from the sixth floor of a hospital where I had taken her for observation and treatment.

Many Filipino maids are victims of illegal recruitment by unscrupulous placement firms.

Their recruiters list them in their employment contracts not as domestic helpers but as waiters, cashiers or any category of worker to conceal their violations of new rules governing the employment of domestic helpers regarding their; prescribed minimum salary of $400 and the nonpayment of placement fees.

Three typical victims of this false representation recently ran away from their employers in Dubai, sought refuge at the Abu Dhabi Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration Center and came home on their own airplane tickets. Their stories of woe are almost similar.

Analiza Gille Laroga of San Carlos City, Pangasinan, was recruited last December by the RML placement agency with offices at the Abad Santos building in Paco, Manila. Her contract, processed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration under the Lucky International Management Services, listed her as cashier to work at the Alaham Coffee House and Cafeteria in Dubai with a salary of $300.

She arrived in Dubai last February 7 and worked not as a cashier but as maid of an Egyptian employer, Mona Shab Bad Ali. She worked 18 hours a day, with very little sleep, little food (mostly noodles) with a salary of 600 dirhams (about P7,500) a month.

She escaped last June 17 and went straight to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai. From there she was taken to the Abu Dhabi OWWA Center where she stayed until her return home last August 8.

She claimed that her mother paid the agency P8,000 as placement fee and P26,000 for her ticket coming home. She is seeking the refund of her placement fee, the cost of her air ticket, and the payment of her unpaid salary with the POEA.

Lilia de Guzman Pangan, 44, of Fairview, Quezon City, has a similar story. She was recruited by RML as a maid but was listed in her contract as a repacker at the Sea Shore Fast Food in Dubai. She worked as a maid of Omair Shalaf Aseeq Baeed Khalef in Dubai from February 7 to May 13, this year.

Underpaid, maltreated and given little food by her employer, she ran away and was taken to the OWWA Center in Abu Dhabi. She came home last July 13 on a ticket paid for by her son working in Jeddah. She wants a refund of P15,000 as her placement fee and the ticket cost amounting to P17,000.

Another maid, Mary Jane Soloriano Albay, was recruited by the Jamal Human Resource International last December for Ahmad Salem Mubarak Humaid in Abu Dhabi at a monthly salary of $200. But she was paid only 600 dirhams or P7,800 a month. She complained of long working hours, only one meal a day and maltreatment, She ran away after six months working for her employer and came home last July 21.

All three were all praise for the Abu Dhabi labor staff—labor attaché Nasser Munder, welfare officer Evelyn Yllanes, administrative assistant Win­nie Monteverde and Rene Sorio, a Filipino member of UAE police security who acted as center coordinator—for treating them well during their stay at the OWWA Center.

The POEA should look into the illegal recruitment of these workers with a view to canceling the licenses of the placement agencies concerned to prevent other workers from falling victims to their illegal operations. Administrative sanctions will be swift and decisive.

Shanghaied to Baghdad

Shanghaied to Baghdad

SCARY was the testimony of Rory Mayberry before a US congressional committee on July 26. He told the story about how, in this age, foreign workers could be tricked by a contractor for the US government to work on a project they knew nothing about, for which they were not prepared and, when they were on the project, worked under bad conditions.

Mayberry, an emergency medical technician contracted to First Kuwaiti International—the construction company building the US Embassy inside the Green Zone in Baghdad—testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he was ordered to shepherd 51 Filipinos. First Kuwaiti has denied the claim.

He told the committee that the Filipinos thought they were bound for Dubai for hotel work, and had no idea that they were being brought to the Iraqi capital.

When the Filipinos protested on the plane upon learning they were being brought to the wrong place, a security officer threatened them by waving an MP-5 machine gun.

Eventually, the Filipinos were “smuggled into the Green Zone,” past US security forces.

Mayberry testified that the Filipinos, among other laborers forced to work on the embassy site, worked without safety equipment. Many were injured at work.

The medical technician testified under oath. He must be telling the truth. This prompted Sen. Mar Roxas, whose staff uncovered the testimony on YouTube, to call the attention of Philippine authorities and the US Embassy in Manila about a modern case of piracy.

He called on the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Labor and Employment to verify the information. He urged the Philippine Embassy in Iraq to conduct an inspection, get in touch with US officials, verify the presence of the Filipinos and help them get out.

Foreign affairs and labor officials must immediately check all recruitment agencies to see who have sent Filipino workers to the Kuwaiti company, he added.

What has been the response to the senator’s representation? The US Embassy has remained silent on the issue.

President Arroyo has extended the term of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee, a group to oversee the safety and evacuation of Filipinos in that region, until the end of 2007. The committee chief, former Gen. Roy Cimatu, is traveling to Iraq to investigate the case.

Vice President Noli de Castro, presidential adviser on migrant labor, has identified two recruitment agencies among those supplying workers to First Kuwaiti Trading, which has denied Mayberry’s claim.

The government had banned Filipinos from travel and work in Iraq since 2004, after Angelo de la Cruz, a truck driver, was abducted by Iraqi militants. He was released only after Manila pulled-out its peacekeeping troops from Iraq. Records show 6,000 to 10,000 Filipinos are in Iraq. They were smuggled into the war-torn country.

“This is not just a violation of our travel ban, this is forced labor. Unless we have officially accepted that the days of slavery are back, the government must act,” Roxas stressed.

It is also more than a labor issue. It is a violation of human rights on US soil, apparently with the help of American officials and contractors.

The Green Zone

THE Green Zone is often touted as Fortress Iraq, the part of Baghdad that is invulnerable to enemy attack because of tight security. It is surrounded by high concrete blast walls and barbed wire. All entry points are controlled by coalition troops.

But in 2004, the zone was hit by two suicide bombings, which destroyed the bazaar and café. On April 12, 2007, a bomb tore through the Iraqi Parliament cafeteria, killing one person and injuring 22, including the vice president.

The attacks have shattered the Green Zone’s myth of impregnability although efforts to make it the capital within the capital continue. One major activity is the construction of the US embassy building which,in size and staff, will make it the biggest US mission in the world.

Fifty-one Filipinos, according to a testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, were recruited to work on the site although the workers were promised they would be working in Dubai, one of the states in the United Arab Emirates.

Stretching 10 kilometers in central Baghdad, the zone is the center of the Coalition Provisional Authority. It remains the hub of the international presence in the city. It is the headquarters for private military contractors, and home to the British embassy, America’s closest ally on the war on terror.

The area was originally home to the villas of Iraqi government officials, cabinet ministries, and a number of palaces owned by former President Saddam Hussein.

Since the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis, many of the properties have been turned over to the Iraqi government. Some 5,000 homeless Iraqis also live in the zone with American forbearance.

The Green Zone is expected to house more international organizations and private businesses in keeping with its status and its promised security. Our embassy hopes to find a home there but that could come only when peace has returned to Iraq.

Outpacing economic growth

Outpacing economic growth

One of the few sources of pride of the administration is the country’s economic performance. But the good news is always tempered by the fact, admitted by the administration, that the benefits of economic growth have not trickled down to the masses. There are several reasons for this, a number of which the government is moving to address. But one of the most glaring has been consistently ignored by the administration: economic growth cannot keep up with population growth.

The National Statistics Office, which launched the other day a nationwide census, expects the population to grow by less than two percent this year. The growth rate has slowed down in the past years, but this year’s growth will translate into a population of 88.7 million. That’s still a huge number that will put additional strain on limited resources and basic services.

As things stand, the government can barely provide those services. Public schools are filled to capacity and the deterioration in the quality of education has taken its toll on the quality of the nation’s workforce. Health centers are shutting down due to an acute lack of doctors and nurses. In densely populated cities, new mothers share beds in government hospitals. For want of decent jobs and livelihood opportunities, people continue to leave the countryside, turning urban migration into a serious problem. The growing lack of agricultural workers threatens the nation’s food security.

The government can boost national production and generate employment to meet the needs of a growing population. Unable to do this, the growth in demand can be tempered through an effective family planning program. This the administration has refused to undertake, with President Arroyo invoking her religious beliefs to explain her stand on family planning.

The position has earned the President brownie points with the Catholic Church, which frowns on all forms of artificial contraception. But as a result, millions of couples lack information on options in planning the size of their families, and women are deprived of information on their reproductive rights. Until the government finds the political will to intervene, population growth will continue to outpace economic growth, and economic benefits will continue to elude the poor.

Atienza not fit to head DENR

Atienza not fit to head DENR

I would like to add my voice of dismay to those of the millions of environmentalists in this country on the appointment of former Manila mayor Lito Atienza as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). This appointment is obviously a political accommodation for yet another of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s loyal-but-now-unemployed supporters. And it is unfortunate that the DENR should be made to serve as a “catch-basin” for this kind of job-seekers. The DENR is not a minor and negligible agency.

Valid and credible qualifications, not to mention a solid track record in environmental protection, have been completely disregarded in this appointment. Atienza hardly has the track record in caring for and protecting the environment when he had the office and the power to do so. If he did not care for Manila’s parks, could he be trusted to oversee the country’s natural resources?

We urge this government to treat the environment with utmost respect by appointing only qualified people to oversee the DENR.

MA. LUISA R. DE LEON-BOLINAO, Ph.D., associate professor 3, History Department, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Business process, outsourcing have changed the business and economic landscape

Business process, outsourcing have changed the business and economic landscape

IF the brighter lights in commercial areas are an indication, the business process outsourcing industry has changed the business and economic landscape of the major business areas in Metro Manila. The industry currently employs a quarter of a million people, with pay scales that rank and file workers from other companies can only dream of.

Based on data from the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, the industry’s current global market share of 5 percent could double in four years, growing at a compound annual rate of 40 percent. This would mean the creation of more than 300,000 jobs in the coming years, with information technology-enabled service firms pushing for the faster development of the domestic talent pool which would be a key component in the industry’s plans to increase revenues to billion and a workforce that would total half a million by the year 2010.

Experts and industry leaders say the sector must strive for growth rates greater than what can be observed at present. In the recent Call Center Conference and Expo 2007, members of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines and the Contact Association of the Philippines agreed to develop and push for an industry roadmap to achieve their goals in the next four years. The roadmap would include: Business process outsourcing companies working with government in creating the right business environment, especially one with tax incentives and similar attractions; creating new locations and developing alternative sites in cities; and enhancing the available talent pool of agents as well as management skills; and expanding the business process outsourcing growth rate that has been achieved so far.

The Philippine Business Processing industry has reached global heights. With a roadmap in place, concerns and barriers to growth can be removed to make the economic prospects of the country even brighter.

Let those dreary jobs in

Let those dreary jobs in

TRUE, there are so many things that do-gooders and the usual crusaders can grouse and carp about the mushrooming of supposedly IT jobs such as contact centers and medical transcription firms that have taken the job market by storm.

For one, these night jobs are truly hazardous to the health. Some kids end up drug-addled just to cope up with the night shifts and the boredom. The young in these jobs often get an overdose of both caffeine and nicotine.

Second, these are not real IT jobs at all and the label as IT-related is a grand deception. Ten years as a call center agent won’t qualify one for an entry-level job at Silicon Valley or Bangalore for that matter.

A hard-core IT job involves the three fields of embedded technologies, programming and networking. If they don’t fall within the three, then what you have are IT-induced jobs but never the real thing.

Third, cast-off jobs from India are the ones coming to us. India has moved into the hard-core stage of programming and embedded technologies. They are into accounts bigger than hosting contact centers and medical transcription entities. There are still contact center jobs there but the transition to hard-core ICT technologies is being done at a very frenzied pace.

But tell us, what is the alternative? Right now there are none. These IT-enabled jobs are the stars in the employment galaxy, lowly they may seem in the real IT world. We can create them at the pace of tens of thousands a month with the proper training and an elementary technology backbone. They can be based anywhere, even in the strife-torn areas. An average IQ is enough and so is a decent-enough phonetics.

Why, we are now exporting contact center agents to places such as Dubai and Singapore, at salaries triple the local pay.

These IT-enabled jobs have propped up consumer spending and the real estate sector at the scope and magnitude that was even beyond the expectation of the major real estate developers and the mall operators. The “For Rent” signs that used to clutter Metro Manila’s business districts have been easing. From Muntinlupa up north to the Clark Economic Zone, one can find buildings upon buildings that host call center operations.

Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City is having a building boom of sorts, thanks to the call centers along a particular strip.

The real spenders at the malls are workers in these IT-enabled jobs, who earn more than the average-wage earners and have—literally—money to burn.

The IT-enabled jobs, if one just probes deeper, do other wonderful things than giving decent-paying jobs to the young (who, without the jobs, would join the armies of unemployed Filipinos) and making the Sys and the Ayalas wealthier every day because of their sustained spending.

These jobs do their bit for the environment. This is for real, not twisted logic.

As more and more young men and women move from the provinces to the call center sites to work and get decent pay, the number of hopeless youth (who in their desperation would otherwise engage in slash-and-burn farming, charcoal gathering, and spraying their farms with lethal chemical and pesticides) diminishes. The pressure on the environment also eases.

As more and more young men leave the farms, the more area is left for the individual farmer to till. Instead of six young male kids tilling the three-hectare rice farm bequeathed by the father, one or two would share the land if all four can land jobs as contact-center agents in the cities.

Where there is less pressure to feed all six kids and force the land to produce more via lethal fertilizer and toxic pesticides, something good is done for the farmland and the environment.

Every sector of the economy, and even the patrimony, is better off because of these jobs.

So instead of carping and complaining about health hazards that these jobs impose on the youth, the do-gooders should better plan ahead just like India. Which is to prepare for the next stage after the IT-enabled jobs. This means training the young to work in the real thing” embedded programs, programming, and maintaining complex ICT networks.

With the real thing, we can grab a sizable slice of the technological innovations in Asia. And we all know what comes with being a technological powerhouse.