Fishy business

Our Southern Spy-ring got wind of reports about Taiwanese aliens reportedly using Filipinos as dummies for their businesses. Aside from exploiting the country’s marine resources, these aliens are reportedly using tuna vessels to bring in smuggled materials through the Toril fish port in Davao. A shabu lab was busted the other year and rumors are abuzz that the materials for producing shabu allegedly entered the country through a tuna fishing vessel from Taiwan. As early as three years ago, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had been keeping a vigilant watch on the Davao International Fish Port in Toril to make sure that it is not used as an entry point for terrorists, illegal aliens and even drugs.

Restructuring the structure

Our Spy-ring reported that there’s a lot of grumbling going on in this government agency over the unusual structure in their office hierarchy. Normally, seniority in a position is indicated through numerical levels, such as Director III, Director IV and so on and so forth. However, this level II director reportedly enjoys the backing of a top official of the agency so he has been placed at the helm of a loan program between the Philippines and another Asian nation, which reportedly has several billions of funds for ongoing and incoming projects. For such a major project, the Director IV should be the head but as it turns out, he and another senior level director have to report to their suddenly-more-senior junior. Naturally, this anomalous set-up is causing a lot of unhappiness in the agency.

Shark decline

An Ear-spy reported that sharks are being indiscriminately killed in General Santos City for their fins and body. Shark fins are considered a delicacy in Asia and there is reportedly a great demand for dried shark fin in Taiwan, China, Japan and Korea where shark fin soup can command high prices. According to our Ear-Spy, the fins are being consumed in volume by the Chinese In GenSan, while the rest of the carcass are sold to a certain Mr. C and Mr. H who own a fertilizer factory. Most fishermen are only after the fins so they sell the rest of the carcass cheaply but lately they have been killing sharks indiscriminately regardless of the size because there is a growing demand from Mr. C and Mr. H. If the indiscriminate killing is not stopped, it could result in an ecological disaster, the Ear-Spy reported. Other countries have been calling for a stop to the practice of finning because it is threatening the survival of the marine ecosystems. The UN estimates that around 100 million sharks are killed worldwide mostly for their fins.

Wanted: English-speaking workers

If we don’t arrest the decline soon, China and India will soon dislodge our overseas workers. This was the warning issued by Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas over the rapidly declining English proficiency of Filipinos. "Our engineers in the Middle East risk being dislodged by Indian and Chinese engineers who not only speak superior English, but are also able to analyze and write reports in English faster," the solon said. He cited Muntinlupa City, which is set to pass an ordinance requiring all personnel of local public schools, including non-teaching staff, to use English as the primary medium of communication. The move is meant to help the city attract more business from call center operators and other business outsourcing providers. Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago is also urging government to be more aggressive in selling the Philippines as a "high-quality and cost-effective" business process outsourcing hub. He named a number of American multinational technology services and BPO providers that have growing investments in the country, among them PeopleSupport, TeleTech Holdings, Dell, Convergys Corp., Accenture, Hewlett-Packard and the ICT group. India reportedly produces over two million English-speaking college graduates each year, while China has over 200 million students studying English. According to Gullas, the John F. Kennedy Foundation’s Philippine center earlier revealed that of the 400,000 Filipino college graduates each year, less than 12,000 readily qualify for jobs in call centers and other BPO providers mainly on account of poor English comprehension, speaking and writing skills.

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