19 months too late

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) should rethink its Jurassic public information strategies because we now live in the “as it happens” world.

Thus, when President Aquino said in his last State of the Nation Address that some 40,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) went home to the Philippines for good because they found jobs here, media asked the POEA for supporting data.

Among the questions thrown POEA’s way were: 1) Which local industries lured back the OFWs from their presumably high-paying jobs abroad? and 2) What’s the average daily deployment figures for OFWs that may show it’s either going down or going up?

The POEA cannot refer those asking the said questions to its annual compendium of OFW statistics which is released usually in the middle of the following year. That kind of stuff is only good for those writing thesis papers.

Since everything is computerized these days, there’s absolutely no excuse for the POEA not to immediately come up with the sought-after figures like during the SONA. If the question is asked in the morning, the POEA should have the answer by afternoon or at the latest the next day.

After all, media, whether social or mainstream, cannot wait for the POEA’s annual compendium of OFW data to answer questions that need answering RIGHT NOW, and not 19 months later.

Not only did the POEA keep quiet on the request for data following the SONA, it is also keeping mum on the claim of a labor group that from about 2,000 departures a day a few years back the average daily departures of OFWs have reached about 6,000.

What? Does the POEA need an app to track its own data on a daily basis or at least a weekly basis so that it would not appear to be unresponsive to request for data? There are too many program developers in the Philippines who could rescue the POEA’s data management and dissemination system from the Dark Ages. –End-        

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Doing not just knowing

What were the reasons why 4.7 million Filipinos quit their jobs in the first half of 2015? It’s obviously not to transfer to other jobs because if that’s the case then they would not have joined the ranks of the jobless.

Likewise, what prompted local companies to retrench 4.4 million Filipinos in the same six-month period at a time when the government is boasting of a vibrant economy with a 6-plus percent growth rate?

Are low export and local demands for Philippine manufactured goods to blame for local industries reducing their production or altogether shutting down?

These are among the questions that government technocrats and economists should answer in the light of a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), which said a total of 10.5 million Filipinos were jobless as of last June, an increase of 1.5 million from the 9 million jobless in March.

Of the 10.5 million, only 1.3 million were first-time job seekers, thus government economists cannot use their favorite scapegoats, which are the alleged lack of qualified applicants for available jobs (jobs-skills mismatch) and the fresh college graduates joining the ranks of the unemployed as they look for jobs.

The very worrying data is the 4.7 million who reportedly quit their jobs. Really, at this time when local jobs are scarce, why would such a big number of Filipinos throw in the towel?

These questions must be answered just for the sake of getting answers but to see what government can do to help local industries find new markets abroad for their products and how to increase local consumer appetite.

Of course, consumer appetite is almost always connected with purchasing power and having jobs that provide that power to procure goods and services. Economic experts know this, but we’re already past the point of knowing as what’s needed is doing. –End-

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Is the 4Ps working?

As the flagship anti-poverty program of the Aquino admnsitration, the Pangtawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) seeks to uplift the living conditions of the poorest of the poor, that is, those who eke out a hand-to-mouth existence on a daily basis.

      

If we're to believe the implementing agency of 4Ps, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), it is working.

      

In fact, a study by the World Bank in 2014 showed that the program has been able to increase the income of partner beneficiaries and to move them closer to the minimum income level needed to overcome poverty. The report also said that per peso cash grant, the poverty gap has been reduced by 61 centavos.

      

This year's World Bank State of Safety Nets study also concluded that the implementation of social safety net programs such as Pantawid Pamilya had helped reduce the poverty gap by 15 percent.

      

Moreover, 4Ps has been successful in encouraging school attendance, promoting preventive health check ups and improving maternal health which are all important factors to break the cycle of poverty.

      

The political opposition and militant groups, however, have pounced on 4Ps as a band-aid solution to poverty, and that the long-term solution lies in employment generation rather than hand-outs.  But the DSWD's stand that 4Ps is really helping the poor is not unfounded.   

      

The 4Ps program for this year will cover a total of 4.6 million families with a budget of P62.665 billion. We should let it continue to serve the poorest of the poor but at the same time ensure that the money really goes to the intended beneficiaries. –End-

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Dipstick on oil prices

Last June, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla cited forecasts by oil companies that the price of crude in the world market would steadily rise in the next three months to peak at about US$70 per barrel by this September.

At this juncture, we invite readers to look at this article’s accompanying chart which tracks the July-September prices of crude oil traded at Nasdag. The chart shows how wrong the forecasts cited by Petilla were.

Instead of increasing, crude oil prices plummeted from below US$65 per barrel nearing the end of July to rest at below US$40 per barrel in late August. In fairness to Petilla, he admitted in June that he was really at a loss whether crudes prices were heading north or south.

Now as you read this, the prices of gas, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have increased in the Philippines by as much as P2 per liter with oil companies claiming that in the past week the US financial condition brightened up, thereby increasing demand for oil and causing a spike in its price.

Indeed that spike in crude prices can be seen in the chart in the first week of September, rising from below US$40 per barrel in late August to rest at just below US%50 per barrel last week. The good news is that crude prices started dropping again this week to rest at US$46 per barrel at the close of trading at Nasdaq.

If this downward trend continues, then our dipstick tells us that we can expect rollbacks anew in the prices of gas, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas in the coming weeks. Cross your fingers.-End-

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Bullets do kill bystanders

The spokesman of the Philipppine National Police (PNP) Highway Patrol Group (HPG), Chief Inspector Oliver Tanseco, should very well know that a bullet, once it leaves the barrel of a gun, doesn’t differentiate between its intended target and innocent bystanders.

No matter how daunting the task given the PNP-HPG to untangle the heavy traffic at EDSA is, it should review its very dangerous announced policy of letting bullets chase after motorists fleeing from a “crime.”

Said Tanseco as quoted by a national daily: “HPG troopers will not hesitate to disable a vehicle by shooting its tire in case a motorist escapes from a crime.”

Last time we checked, the PNP rules of engagement states that a police officer can only draw or fire his firearm in the event that his life or those of other people are directly being threatened, say by a gunman.

So, is it really justified for a member of the PNP-HPG to shoot at vehicles “fleeing” a “crime.” And by crime, did the PNP-HPG meant mere traffic violations or a motorist leaving behind a road carnage of his doing?

What if a motorist being flagged down by a PNP-HPG officer didn’t see his being flagged down? Would he then be considered to be fleeing from a crime? Would shooting at his vehicle’s tires be justified?

Even when chasing real criminals like bank robbers, the police are expected to use firearms as a last recourse especially in crowded areas because bullets once fired cannot be taken back when they hit innocent bystanders. 

–End-

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AVE MARIA, Ora Pronobis

Among the dozens of Ave Marias composed and performed in praise and veneration of the Lord Jesus Christ’s mother, the Virgin Mary, the two most recognizable versions are those by Franz Schubert and Johann Sebastian Bach (with lyrics by Charles Gounod.)

In the Philippines, the two melancholic Ave Marias have been associated with funeral marches and are, thus, rarely played outside of such somber settings. However, they are actually paeans to the Virgin Mary as an intercessor of sinners to her son Jesus.

The standard lyrics of most Ave Marias being from St. Luke 1:28, they recount the visitation when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she has been the chosen one to bear the Son of God who would take away the sins of the world.

The playing of Schubert and Bach-Gounod’s Ave Marias during funeral processions may not only be in relation to their heavenly albeit seemingly mournful tunes: For the Bach-Gounoud masterpiece an excerpt from the Praeludium of BWV 846 and for Schubert’s tour de force one set to Op. 52 No.6, D.839.

In playing the Ave Maria during funerals, the reference is to Michaelangelo’s Pieta depicting a grieving Mary cradling the lifeless body of Christ upon his removal from the cross. For Catholics at least, the Virgin Mary is the mother not only of Christ but of all people. This is the reason why we ask Mother Mary to pray for us sinners now and at the time of our death.

Happy birthday, Mama Mary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAg6RtRonO0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPjEi78hQ88 –End-

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Food for thought

Around three million Filipino families went hungry in the first quarter of 2015, a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed. Yet, according to the World Food Program of the United Nations, there is enough food in the world for everyone.

The problem, according to the UN agency, is that poverty deprives many people of access to readily available food. This is against the global backdrop of over 1.3 billion tons of food being lost each year to wastage.

Latest data from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PRRI) show that each Filipino wastes an average of 3.29 kilos of rice each year or a total of 296,869 metric tons of the staple grain going down the drain.

A study has yet to be undertaken on the tonnage of food wasted from commercial establishments but it is common knowledge that restaurants all over the country throw away unsold food at the end of each day – food that can sustain the multitude of hungry Filipinos.

Maybe it’s time that Filipinos look at the Greek model of feeding the poor while fighting wastage – a movement started three years ago by the Bourome or We Can organization.

Bourome takes unsold food from shops and restaurants that are perfectly fit for consumption but are nonetheless headed for the garbage dump, and uses them to feed the growing number of Greeks growing hungry because of their country’s worsening economic crisis.

According to the Agence France Presse, the food collected by Bourome provides about 2,500 meals a day across Greece. Fancy something like this happening in the Philippines.-End-

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