Focus on job creation, not on OFW deployment
I HAVE just read the article "Number of OFWs in '05 breaches 500,000 mark." I want to make a response to the following comment made by Acting Labor SecretaryDanilo Cruz: "We are confident that our goal to deploy a million OFWs globally continues on a firm and stable track."
My response is: Why does Cruz and the Department of Labor continue to focus so much of their time and effort on making sure there are more OFWs abroad rather than on the more important tasks of attracting more industries and creating new jobs in thePhilippines?
It seems to me that the Philippines government should try to encourage the creation of more industries and jobs in the Philippines itself so that the country's economy will improve on its own, rather than have to rely on the help of OFWs, who go overseas to find a better life for themselves. The whole OFW policy is misguided and short sighted and is more of a bandage
solution to a much bigger problem.
It's time for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her government to come up with better ways to improve the Philippine economy without having to depend on the income remittances of Filipinos working overseas or raising taxes on everyone, which Arroyo wants to do.
Otherwise, Philippine sovereignty will erode, as the country becomes an economic dependent led by an impotent president who is chiefly concerned about saving herself and her family from
scandals.
KYE PARSONS, 2002 Huntsman Drive, Salisbury, Maryland,USA
Regain lost honor
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo finally confessed what the public has suspected or known all along --that it was she who was in a wiretapped phone conversation about an alleged conspiracy to rig the 2004 presidential election results. The President’sadmission, however,
fell extremely short of unraveling the truth about the widely circulated taped conversation. She merely opened the Pandora’s box of damning questions on her culpability for election fraud. Whatever she might have admitted, the confession and her apology rang hollow and was bereft of sincerity with which one could empathize.
For one, Ms Arroyo refused to admit to any wrongdoing. For another, the confession was incomplete and apparently legally calculated.
While everybody knew who “Garci" was, the President chose to play coy by merely referring to him as a certain Commission on Elections official -- a move that was undoubtedly a legal precaution. Relevant details were left hanging, simply because mentioning them might incriminate and might be used against her.
It may have been out of legal prudence that the President took that tack, but it did not augur well for the people. When Ms Arroyo adamantly refused to admit the authenticity of the tapes, the people did not like it, because they hate to be lied to. Now that she has admitted it is her
voice on the tape, and that what she did was merely a “lapse of judgment,” they feel they are being taken for a ride. That’s worse, because people doubly hate having their intelligence insulted.
Ms Arroyo’s television address was a production that played a poor script and poorer acting. She attempted to appeal to people’s emotions and counted on the Filipinos’ being quick to forgive and forget, but her forgettable but not forgivable performance came out as what it was --
rehearsed and contrived. Comedian Ate Glow could have performed better.
And speaking of screen presence, Ms Arroyo is a far cry from Susan Roces, not because Susan is a better actress (definitely) but because when Susan speaks or displays righteous indignation (as she has done recently following Arroyo’s tape disclosure) it is heartfelt.
The President utterly lacks the dignified bearing of a Susan Roces. Pound for pound (not to mention height against height) "Ate Glo" is no match against "Manang Inday" in public credibility.
President Arroyo, a professed devout Catholic, should take counsel from the famed running priest, Fr. Robert Reyes. The priest said Ms Arroyo’s confession would not have been accepted in Catholic rites. The sacrament requires a sinner to reveal all her sins. He further preached, “It’s
not enough to say sorry if you did not confess all your sins. There has to be penance. Penance will hurt. It will hurt the penitent and it has something to do with the sin committed.”
For the people deeply offended by what they perceiveas the President’s grievous sin of lying and cheating in the elections, the penance they prescribe is that she step down from the presidency.
The credibility and trust that are now lost from the presidency could be restored only through her resignation.To make up to the people for her lapse in judgment and act of impropriety, Ms Arroyo has promised to redouble her efforts to serve the nation and earn the people’s trust. But the people’s trust has been irreversibly breached.
Elsewhere, heads of state are expected to resign indisgrace for breach of their nations' political ethics. In another culture, hara-kiri would have beena proper penance for Ms Arroyo’s lapse in judgment. To the Japanese, to take one's own life and suffer the pain of a self-disembowelment ritual is to regain lost honor and save face. Here, “to save face” has taken a different sense; those who cling to power have taken it to mean having a face thicker than a carabao’s hide (my deep apologies to the carabao); the term "kapalmuks" [thick-faced] must have been a word coined
specifically for politicians.
It has come to pass that time-honored values of "palabra de honor" [word of honor] and "delicadeza"[sense of propriety], to borrow the words of fellowAtenean (de Naga) Conrad de Quiros, have become commodities that are routinely and horrendously defiled in this country, no thanks to Ms Arroyo.
The President has asked for forgiveness. But to forgive her at this point is to condone lying and wrongdoing (and ignore evidence of election fraud) committed by the highest official of the land. This would reinforce the cynical belief that in this country cheating and other foul means are tolerated or, worse, are part of the rules of the game called Philippine elections.
It would justify the Machiavellian tenet that the ends justify the means to capture political power. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would certainly not be happy to be remembered as the president who lied, who cheated and won the election, and later was caught but nonetheless got away with it.
She would not like her lapse of judgment and act of impropriety to become a model of conduct that other elective officials may be tempted to emulate. No, she would not allow that. She would make certain her office remains exalted and free from a besmirched reputation. She would make
sure that only honest and honorable statesmen and stateswomen would occupy the Office of the President. Wouldn’t you, MadamePresident?ELMER S. CASILLAN, 12 Queborac Drive, Bagumbayan Sur,Naga City
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More than impropriety
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s admission that she talked to an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before her proclamation raises a key issue that Filipinos must grapple with. It is not one of mere impropriety, as her allies would have us believe. Neither is it of stability or the need for sobriety.The issue is, plainly, one of right and wrong, and what is
to be done in the face of wrongdoing.
Ms Arroyo asked us to forgive her. But if the President were to be exonerated by a public apology, what basis would there be to charge the Comelec official she conversed with, and the others with whom this Comelec official collaborated to carry out questionable if not criminal
acts?
Some argue that the legitimacy of Ms Arroyo’s victory is nonetheless unquestionable, that she would have won anyway. This assertion is now open to debate.
Others say there is no alternative leader. Again, this is an open question.
Still others argue that the instability that would arise from a change of president would be disastrous for the nation. But is the instability caused by the President’s wrongdoing not disastrous enough?
A President incapable of distinguishing between mere impropriety and grave wrong doing should not lead. Ms Arroyo must step down from office.
By stepping down, the message to all, most especially our youth, is clear: dishonesty is unacceptable. Dishonesty is wrong. No public official who is dishonest should remain in office. Dishonest officials must be accountable for their actions. “Sorry” is not enough.
By remaining in office, Ms Arroyo’s message is theopposite: it pays to be dishonest; just apologize and all is forgiven. Worse, there are indications of a cover-up of the wrongdoing at the highest level. As evidence of the cover-up emerges, Ms Arroyo’s position will become increasingly untenable.
Much has been said about the need to respect constitutional processes. The truth is, far too many Filipinos have lost faith not just in our leaders but in our institutions.
The Comelec has no credibility; so is the legislature; and the judiciary has failed to deliver justice especially to the poor and powerless. A church that preaches sobriety but remains silent in the face of patently immoral public acts will lose its reason for being. Businessmen who value profits and market stability over what is a clear case of misgovernance will soon lose both. And civil society leaders who cannot condemn wrong doing by the country’s highest officials isolate themselves from the majority for whom hunger and basic survival are daily fare.
The people cannot wait for the outcome of a fact-finding commission, which would take a year or so while Ms Arroyo remains in office.
We repeat, Ms Arroyo must step down. This is the first and necessary step in the peaceful transition to a restructuring of our institutions.
ZENEIDA Q. AVANCEÑA, president, CARMEN I. DIOKNO,treasurer, The Diokno Foundation
source: the inquirer
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