Is it weak government or a weak and powerless people that is the problem?
Look, we have right now a very serious problem of power. Pre-need companies are folding left and right and asking government billions of our money to prop them up.
Legacy group of companies have been stricken out of the major broadsheets. For the past few weeks, nothing has been heard about it. Is Legacy now being given 14 billion pesos from PDIC funds without accountability? PDIC executives should be reminded that those monies came from taxes, the people's money. They must not toy with it.
AMAPLans and other pre-need companies are reporting huge losses, probably because they too think that they can get away with murder by diluting their trust funds and asking government to give them money to prop those funds up. They are cooking us with our own fat!
What had happened to the plus 40 billion pesos stimulus fund that the SSS intends to give businesses and banks? These funds are also public money. No news means danger.
We have companies like SMART which funds a very secretive online movement called AKO MISMO. AKO MISMO is being charged with phishing activities, an illegal and IMMORAL THING. AKO MISMO is reportedly not only a very deceptive marketing ploy---it also allegedly intends to sell personal information of its members to the highest political bidder. AKO MISMO is playing the nationalist card while collating data that it allegedly intends to sell.
We have senators that break the law by not subjecting themselves to self-quarantine---a procedure required in times of health crisis in all countries.
We have a vindictive group of grafters and evildoers that uses the law as their shield against criticism and spends public money to pursue injustice against those who seek the truth.
We have journalists like Che-che Lazaro (more on this later) who now faces a wiretapping charge for allegedly presenting an interview she got from a GSIS senior official.
Lastly, we have an MultiNational Company acting like a bully and disrespecting even our former presidents! Nestle Philippine CEO Nandu Nandiskore should be expatriated immediately for embarrasing his company and by committing unprofessional acts.
Is it weak government or we have a weak and powerless people? In other countries, issues like these immediately merit a proper and judicious response.
If we are in Singapore, that Legacy owner would have been hanged already. Owners of pre-need companies who diluted their trust funds would have gotten the same treatment and worst, not allowed to be buried.
That AKO MISMO site would have been immediately stricken out of the netsphere and officials charged.
Che-Che Lazaro would have been hailed a hero.
And Nandu expatriated with his head bowed.
Showing posts with label recession in singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession in singapore. Show all posts
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
May Day in February?
Hundreds of Filipino workers and laborers trooped to the Department of Labor and Employment to protest the rising job cuts being done by both private and public companies nationwide. Panasonic Philippines is purportedly the latest of a string of multinational companies closing shop in the Philippines. Labor groups estimate that more than 11 million Filipinos will either be laid off or will lose their shirts before the second quarter of this year. This is alarming considering that the unemployment rate is slipping faster than expected.
Labor groups are threatening to continue their strikes and demonstrations. Government employees subjected to the "rationalization" plan is also threatening to demonstrate against the current administration. The purported "surgical strike" against employees occupying so-called "redundant" positions smacks of what labor leaders call "union busting" since 50 of these employees are top union leaders. All throughout the country, thousands are being made to cut their working times by half or advised to report longer hours of work without additional pay. Some companies are encouraging part-time work. Some firms, particularly those in the garments sector are closing shop and "resurrecting" in other places with new employees signed as contractuals.
With more and more Pinoys joining the jobless sector, this causes an extreme threat to the stability of the state. As early as now, labor groups are expecting a jack knife rise in the unemployment rate. If this happens, that will surely affect consumer confidence leading to a slump or a slowdown in consumption. A slowdown in consumption will mean lesser production, ergo, more companies to close shop.
The slide of the Philippines to a deep recession is surely inevitable. In fact, compared with other countries, the Philippine bastion is sure to fall in a steeper altitude since the country will be the last one to give up the economic ghost in the region. Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and Hongkong have all declared their economies to be technically under recession. The Philippines is the last to call it quits.
Any stimulus package should address the labor issue more than any other since these displaced workers and sectors will need bigger financial assistance than other sectors. Mrs. Arroyo and her team of economic advisers should ensure that government is more responsive to this than ever since people are quite jittery over the bigger prospects of being made victims of this deepening global recession.
The state is also being held hostage by bigger interest groups seeking amelioration from their financial ruts. Pre-need companies are joining the fray, salivating with the prospect of taking a slice in the stimulus pie. While construction firms are just waiting for the finalization of their SOAs so that they could take their commissions from those juicy low-cost housing projects worth an estimated 82 billion pesos.
What is frightening is the stark prospect of a worker's revolt. The possibility of workers storming the bastille similar to the May 1, 2002 incident is not far-fetched. The eventual slip of the Philippines into a revolutionary situation is not a joke. Trouble could strike this perfumed conjugal dictatorship sooner than expected.
Labor groups are threatening to continue their strikes and demonstrations. Government employees subjected to the "rationalization" plan is also threatening to demonstrate against the current administration. The purported "surgical strike" against employees occupying so-called "redundant" positions smacks of what labor leaders call "union busting" since 50 of these employees are top union leaders. All throughout the country, thousands are being made to cut their working times by half or advised to report longer hours of work without additional pay. Some companies are encouraging part-time work. Some firms, particularly those in the garments sector are closing shop and "resurrecting" in other places with new employees signed as contractuals.
With more and more Pinoys joining the jobless sector, this causes an extreme threat to the stability of the state. As early as now, labor groups are expecting a jack knife rise in the unemployment rate. If this happens, that will surely affect consumer confidence leading to a slump or a slowdown in consumption. A slowdown in consumption will mean lesser production, ergo, more companies to close shop.
The slide of the Philippines to a deep recession is surely inevitable. In fact, compared with other countries, the Philippine bastion is sure to fall in a steeper altitude since the country will be the last one to give up the economic ghost in the region. Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and Hongkong have all declared their economies to be technically under recession. The Philippines is the last to call it quits.
Any stimulus package should address the labor issue more than any other since these displaced workers and sectors will need bigger financial assistance than other sectors. Mrs. Arroyo and her team of economic advisers should ensure that government is more responsive to this than ever since people are quite jittery over the bigger prospects of being made victims of this deepening global recession.
The state is also being held hostage by bigger interest groups seeking amelioration from their financial ruts. Pre-need companies are joining the fray, salivating with the prospect of taking a slice in the stimulus pie. While construction firms are just waiting for the finalization of their SOAs so that they could take their commissions from those juicy low-cost housing projects worth an estimated 82 billion pesos.
What is frightening is the stark prospect of a worker's revolt. The possibility of workers storming the bastille similar to the May 1, 2002 incident is not far-fetched. The eventual slip of the Philippines into a revolutionary situation is not a joke. Trouble could strike this perfumed conjugal dictatorship sooner than expected.
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