“Today the Philippines is weathering well the storm that is raging around the world. It is growing stronger with the challenge. When the weather clears, as it will, there is no telling how much farther forward it can go. Believe in it. I believe.” – Gloria Arroyo



My mother keeps telling me to cut down on cussing in the stuff I write. I’ve consciously tried to do this, except that when someone says something like, “The state of our nation is a strong economy”, I cannot help but blurt out, “what the - - !?”

Imaginary Gains and Tough Luck

Let me just say, I keep trying. And failing. Miserably. GMA seems to have this limitless capacity to get to me— never fails to get me all worked up. In her state of the nation address, she talked about how the stats and figures are speaking for themselves, and disappointing her critics. It goes without saying, we are disappointed (and disappointment might not be the right word to describe this, as seen in the consistent and continuous plunge of her approval ratings) but it’s not because things are going so well, we have nothing to pin on her.

It has more to do with her misplaced sense of accomplishment and optimism, and our tough luck that we’re stuck one more year with a president we despise, with this deranged woman who can’t stop bragging about imaginary gains at a time we’re obviously hitting rock bottom.

GMA insists that she’s all set to continue what she’s doing, as there’s still a lot of work to do. Right now, I’m wondering whether this is meant to appease and assure a frustrated public. Thing is, an administration with such a warped sense of reality is in no position to effectively address many of the crucial concerns we are facing as a nation. And there are a lot.

Clearly, this administration and the rest of the country are not on the same page. I’d like to say, let me count the ways, but then deadlines and space constraints prevent me from doing this. We need only focus on basics, such as employment— access to and availability of decent work that would allow Filipinos to put food on the table, get a roof over their heads, send their kids to school and somehow lead a secure and dignified way of life. I certainly don’t want to be tagged as a critic-with-blinders-on who keeps popping peoples bubbles, but the precarious jobs situation in the country is screaming out, “what in the world is she talking about?!”

Real Score

GMA’s ‘6-10 million jobs by 2010’ project is definitely far from achieving targets, both in terms of quantity and quality of employment generated. The Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) report made by the Center for Labor Justice and Fair Trade Alliance (CLJ-FTA) gives us the low down, which looks at GMA’s employment accomplishment over the years. This assessment score card points out that GMA missed her own jobs target, even as the number of jobs set mostly only covers anticipated new labor force entrants each year. While GMA declared that 8 million jobs were created during her term, the DRTS report shows that she hardly achieved half of the 1.6 million jobs set each year.

According to the report, “the overall job creation performance of the country is dismal and even declining. Instead of 1.6 million jobs being created in 2005, only 700,000 new jobs were added to the labor market or 43.7 percent of the 1.6 million target. In 2006, job creation declined to 648,000 (40.5 percent of 1.6 million) and even further down in 2007, to 599,000 (37.4 percent).”

The study further explains that, “with the ‘hollowing out’ of the agro-industrial base, the country’s labor force (and the economy) has become dependent on two catch basins—the overseas labor market and the service sector… However, the service sector has also another side—the informal sub-sector, which is an economy by itself. Those who cannot be accommodated by the shrinking formal sector in industry and the limited formal sub-sector in services end up in the informal economy, doing all kinds of irregular jobs unprotected by labor laws, just to get by or to cope with the daily requirements of survival.”

This finding can be gleaned even from official statistics, for instance the April 2009 employment snapshot. According to the April 2009 Labor Force Survey, the employment rate has increased to 92.5% and that unemployment has gone down slightly compared to last year, from 8 percent in April 2008 to 7.5 percent in April 2009. Such stats are being used to project that the job situation has gotten better this year, despite the global crisis. GMA can’t stop patting herself on the back for a job well done, while at least 6.6 million are underemployed, at least 2.8 million are out-of-work, and most of those who do have work are stuck with unsteady work or unpaid jobs. OF the 35 million recorded employed workers, 13.1 percent are unpaid family workers; and 34.9 percent are own account workers, or about 4.6 million and 12.2 million respectively.

The figures for both categories have risen from last year. This April, there are almost 400,000 more unpaid family workers and over half a million more self-employed workers than in April 2008. In other words, the jobs supposedly being generated do not constitute quality, decent employment. In fact, these statistics are actually telling us how many more have their backs pushed against the wall. There are more vendors and hawkers, informal workers, more scavengers, who make a living through irregular and vulnerable forms of employment; more family members who are doing their share in fisheries and agriculture, without getting anything more in return.

Meanwhile, the proportion of those actually earning wages have gone down a notch, from 52.9 percent last year to 51.9 percent, although these do not necessarily make up what could be considered decent jobs, if we look at the pittance most are receiving. At the same time, there’s also an increase in part-time employment, with the proportion of those working less than 40 hours rising to 41 percent from 35.6 percent last year, which suggests that more Filipinos are relying on doing ‘sideline’ or ‘pa-extra-extra’, if not on flexible work arrangements forced down their throats, with companies reeling from the economic crunch.

A closer look at official statistics lends credence to other platforms that try to measure the state of employment in the country. The Social Weather Stations for instance says that ‘adult unemployment’ rose to a ‘record-high’ of 34.2 percent, according to their survey conducted in February 2009. In their books, there are 3 million more Filipinos out of work this round, with their figures rising to 14 million from 11 million in the previous quarter. The SWS defines unemployment as “not working and at the same time looking for work,” with respondents aged at least 18 years old instead of the official lower boundary of 15 years old. According to the SWS, unemployment has been over 20 percent since 2005.

Although there are differences in the way unemployment is measured, most of us would find SWS figures more in tune with what we see on the ground. Higher unemployment rates registered in this survey reflect what millions of Filipinos are actually experiencing and the jobs deficit they’re confronted with.

8 years, 8 letters

The administration’s appraisal of the economic situation is so out of touch with the way things are, it’s almost laugh-out-loud absurd. Except we’re the ones getting pie in our faces and rotten tomatoes. Of course, people like Olivia, one EPZA worker I have gotten to know, and Allan (not their real names), a displaced OFW, are in no position to laugh.

Allan was sent back home, with 7 months left in his contract. He was able to get a 50,000 peso loan as part of the PGMA livelihood assistance program, which he and his wife used to set up a small canteen and tide themselves over while he’s still looking for a job. This was early in the year and now they had to shut down their canteen because it wasn’t earning. Allan has found temporary employment through the government referral program but he’s still gunning for overseas work, which he and his wife think is their best bet to earn enough to sustain their family.

Olivia took a ‘retooling’ course for displaced workers, one of the programs offered by the government in response to the crisis, when the company she works for started imposing flexible work arrangements. She just finished her welding course when I met her in May, and two months later she still hasn’t found new employment. Today, she’s making-do with one-day-a-week work in the same EPZA soldering factory, where she’s getting bare minimum wages. She tells me this is not enough and how she’s deep in debt. She tells me that she continues to send out applications and going around in search for openings, the rest of the week when she doesn’t have work. And even as so-called sound economic fundamentals and appropriate policies keep screwing her over, she relates how she’s forced to hold on to this factory ‘job’ because it’s the only one available.

These are the kinds of programs that GMA and her spin doctors are so proud of.

This so-called strong economy needs to be more than just sleight-of-hand statistics, propped up by the Filipino’s unbelievable resilience and inconceivable ability to just grin and bear it. I keep thinking our economy is more like this hostile wilderness, cloaked in the supposed glitter of malls and ICT and upgraded credit ratings; where up to this time, majority of our people are reduced to ‘hunting and gathering’, left to their own devices in the face of overwhelmingly precarious conditions, riding it out from day to day, in order to at least feed themselves, if at all.

There’s nothing sound or appropriate about that.

If things continue the way they’re going, I’ll just have to keep being the crass writer who says bad words in public. The challenge here is that I need to constantly expand my vocabulary of foul language, given that I may have used up the ones I already know, in the last 8 years. And given that I’m not much into score cards and rating things numerically, I may have to reduce all I have to say to 8 letters. What do I think of GMA and her SONA?

Bullcrud.