Parable of the Lobster

Once upon a time, in the center of Manhattan, there was a big American restaurant owned by a husband and wife team, "MONO" and "POLY" that served lobsters of every kind. They offered lobster thermidor, lobster aus jus, lobster de ajo, grilled lobster, steamed lobster, and every other lobster concoction imaginable.

This big American restaurant bought its lobsters from a small Filipino grocery in the corner of their street owned by Mang Ambo. For years the small Filipino grocery sold the lobsters at very low prices to the big American restaurant. In fact, Mono and Poly would dictate the price of the lobster promising that if Mang Ambo lowered the price, more lobsters would be bought. One day, Mang Ambo realized his price was so low he had to raise it a bit to make ends meet.

So Mang Ambo went to the US Lobster Commission and asked, "Up to what level can I raise my lobster prices?"

The US Lobster Commission said, " Only up to 20 cents a pound, and no more."

Mang Ambo then went to the Lobster Distributors Union and asked, "Sir, up to what level can I raise my lobster price?"

The Lobsters Union said, "Only up to 23 cents a pound and no more."

So Mang Ambo went back to his store and thought to himself, "hmmm okay, I’ll raise it to 23 cents a pound." But immediately he thought of those buying from him and decided that instead of raising it to 23 cents, he would just raise it from 8 cents to 12 cents.

"That should make my clients happy," thought Mang Ambo.

True enough, most of Mang Ambo’s clients saw how reasonable the increase was and the different restaurants from the city agreed to the price. The Japanese restaurant, the Canadian, Indonesian, Portuguese, Chinese, British restaurants all said, "Okay Mang Ambo." Even the American Fastfood chain, SPRINTY agreed.

But when Mono and Poly heard of the small price increase, they rushed to the small Filipino Grocery store and demanded that they be allowed to buy the lobsters at the old price of eight cents or lower. Mang Ambo didn’t agree but tried to explain how reasonable his price increase was and that he needed to do it just to make ends meet.

But Mono and Poly stormed out of the Filipino grocery, sued Mang Ambo and told their customers in the restaurant that the reason why they couldn’t serve lobster was because Mang Ambo was greedy. At the same time, Mono and Poly shrewdly raised the price of the lobster in their menu to earn more profits.

This parable more or less captures the sentiments of our local telecommunications companies regarding the case filed by US giants AT&T and MCI WorldCom to prevent the Filipino telcos from raising their prices. The battle continues and let us hope that our Filipino telcos, the National Telecommunications Commission, and the public never allow these monopolistic foreign giants to bully their way to the detriment of the Filipinos.

Poor OCWs

It seems that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is undoing what our government is trying to achieve in terms of bettering the lives of our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

An OCW leaving the country is required to present to the validation booth of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) what is called an overseas employment certificate to prove that he has paid his OCW insurance and medicare dues. If everything is in order, the OCW then presents the validated certificate to the immigration authorities at the airport. It is only after he is cleared by these immigration authorities that he is allowed to leave.

If the POEA validation booth finds out that the OCW does not have this certificate, the latter can present receipts to show proof of payment. If he does not have any proof that he has completely paid the required P1,200 and P900 a year OCW insurance and medicare fees, respectively, the said OCW is asked to go to the OWWA office located at Terminal I of NAIA.

But what if the said OCW is departing through Terminal 2? Imagine yourself in the shoes of the poor OCW who has to leave his things at the airport, take a cab or other means of public transport to go to Terminal 1. Most likely, his relatives have already left him when he entered the terminal.

What is worse is if this incident happens during lunchbreak. Since the OWWA office at Terminal I is not online and not connected to the main office, it has to call the main office to verify the account. During lunchbreak, there is no way of checking the record. So when an OCW is scheduled to leave between 12 noon and 1 p.m., it is highly likely that he will have to defer his flight. What if he came all the way from Abra or Ilocos Norte?

Is it asking too much for OWWA to conduct an information campaign to remind the OFWs of the need to secure such certification before leaving? Is it too expensive to put up an OWWA extension office at Terminal 2 when it has been doing the same in malls? Is it too costly to put the OWWA office at Terminal 1 online?

Sounds reasonable and cheap if one considers how much these OFWs are contributing to our economy.

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