A nation of part-timers

One cannot miss this particular reality – that of a nation where mostly everyone is unable or unwilling to sustain a full-time commitment. It makes no difference whether one is discussing the pedigreed glitterati or the lowly hoi polloi. Rare is the Filipino who now fully applies himself to a singular preoccupation, occupation, vocation or devotion in this country.

Many people point to a prevalent acute income deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as driving them towards part-time work. Those lucky enough to avoid utter joblessness settle for the most physically demanding, culturally degrading and normally insecure part-time jobs in order to keep body and soul together. Unfortunately, their desperate attempt to survive as human beings too often fails. Their emaciated bodies deteriorate and break down given brutal work conditions. Their stressed souls languish and suffer much degradation in jobs allowing little human dignity to remain. Between their physical deterioration and spiritual disorientation, little that is human among these mostly miserable part-time workers survives.

Those who are much luckier join the so-called "full-time" and "gainfully employed" part of the labor force. Ironically, their "full-time" work normally requires that they too resort to other part-time jobs, "sidelines" that increase their chances of material survival but minimize the possibility of excellence or simple competence in the work that they regularly do, whether their work be nominally addressed as "full time" or euphemistically labeled "part time".

The imperative to work several jobs simultaneously in order to survive or to stave off imminent poverty makes for an interesting labor force profile. Where fifty, forty years ago, one could honestly speak of competitive professionals or skilled workers in specific fields, one now finds it problematic to locate passable competence in practically any area of work. Carpenters do electrical work, masons undertake plumbing, electricians dig pozo negros, mechanics handle carpentry, house painters calibrate fuel-injected engines, farmers cut hair in makeshift barber shops, barbers drive colorful tricycles, seamstresses double as bar girls, lavanderas are also yayas and katulongs are of course multipurpose workers — "caregivers" for the aged, alalays for their distressed and forlorn ate’s and kuya’s and reliable workhorses in all other cases.

The professions too reflect the pervasive part-timer syndrome. Teachers peddle tocinos, lawyers sell real estate, architects offer cars, engineers hawk memorial plots, over-the-counter pharmacists do medical diagnosis, doctors go into nursing, actors venture into politics and the professional politician of course does not hesitate to be a part-time actor, a part-time cabinet member, a part-time legislator, a part-time justice and a part-time whatever.

Among the professionals, not everyone suffers from AIDS. Far too many of those who cannot and will not sustain a full-time professional commitment own mansions, resthouses, yachts, luxury cars and secret bank accounts. Most of these dolce vita people may at times brazenly invite but it is doubtful whether they can survive serious lifestyle checks. Unexplainable wealth – riches well beyond the realm of presumably legitimate incomes – is their common Achilles heel.

Among these part-timers, none may be considered more pernicious than professional politicians who treat the nation’s governance as less than full-time work. Especially in a time of crisis, politicians who insist on serving the world of entertainment as they try to address the nation’s calamities inflict on their people the greatest disservice.

Filipinos forced by their miserable circumstances to undertake part-time work in order to survive are clearly tragic figures. On the other hand, those who neglect the country’s full time governance, those who opt to callously entertain victims of a long-playing national tragedy, are definitely derelict in their sworn duty to govern effectively. Given current times, these politicians’ part-time governance is tantamount to full-time treason.