Battle vs joblessness

This year’s commemoration of Philippine Independence Day on Friday will be a “Triple One” celebration. This is because we are observing the 111th Independence Day anniversary since the proclamation of our country’s liberation from foreign colonial rule on June 12, 1898. Official announcements from Malacañang Palace said the annual Independence Day celebration will hugely veer from the government’s customary practices without downplaying this significant event in our country’s history.

In keeping with stringent times, the Palace-designated organizing committee chairman, Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito Roque, decided to keep austere the June 12 main celebration. There will be no more usual civic-military parade being held each year at the Luneta Grandstand. Departing again from traditions, President Arroyo will raise the giant Philippine flag and lay the wreath at the Rizal Monument, not in Luneta but in the city of Koronadal, in South Cotabato. Rizal’s monument in this city, formerly called Marbel, is located ironically in a place called Bonifacio Street.

It will be Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza who will lead the early morning flag-raising rites in Luneta. But where does this place Manila Mayor Fred Lim? As everyone knows, Lim is not exactly in speaking terms with Atienza who was once his vice mayor and later beat him when they bitterly fought each other during the Manila mayoral elections in 2004. Atienza and Lim will have a face off anew in the coming mayoral race in the May 2010 elections. So I don’t think Atienza is unperturbed even if his confirmation was by-passed again by the Commission on Appointments when it adjourned sessions last week.  

I gathered from City Hall that Mayor Lim will lead his own flag-raising rites with World War II veterans at the North Cemetery in Manila. But later in the day, President Arroyo is flying back to Manila to join the “Mega Jobs and Livelihood Fair” organized by DOLE to mark this year’s Independence Day celebration. Jobs and livelihood booths will be put up in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park.

Fortunately, our Independence Day celebration falls this year on a Friday that coincides with the so-called “holiday economics” of the Arroyo administration. Under this “holiday economics” policy, a national holiday that falls on weekdays will be moved to either Monday or Friday so that it will be a long weekend. It is supposed to encourage Filipinos to go on weekend holiday and take their families on out-of-town trips to spur economic activities in the countryside.

Speaking of holidays, the Senate came out last Monday with a performance report about their legislative output after the adjournment of the 14th Congress last week. The Senate listed legislative bills they acted on, including a number of proposed new national and local holidays. One is Senate Bill 3284 declaring April 27 of every year as a special non-working holiday throughout the country to commemorate the victory of Lapu-Lapu and his men over the Spaniards in the historic battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521. The Senate approved SB 3284 on second reading. Also approved on second reading was SB 3283 which calls for national holiday for the observance of Eidul Adha, presumably another Islamic religious event. 

Too much holidays earlier prompted business and industry leaders, most especially from the foreign chambers, to call the government’s attention to its negative impact on the country’s productivity amid the global financial crisis.

With seven percent unemployment rate in our country, about 2.7 million jobless Filipinos, the government must focus its attention and resources to activities that will really result to job generation and creating new livelihood opportunities.

Our country’s unemployment problem is mitigated by the gainful employment of more than eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Hopefully, they would not be displaced by the global financial meltdown that has been crippling many world economies where they are mostly employed. If we are to believe official announcements from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, there are around 120,000 job vacancies abroad that will be offered to thousands of job-hunters during the three-day jobs fair that DOLE will launch on Independence Day. 

The jobs fair will be conducted simultaneously in 16 regions nationwide starting Friday until Sunday. The event, dubbed the Kalayaan 2009 job and livelihood fair, will so far be the biggest gathering of employers offering at least 130,000 jobs that also include 34,000 vacancies in 60 government agencies.

The government will lead big-time the jobs fair and its vacancies offered wide open to the public. It is to the credit of the newly confirmed DOLE Secretary who paved the way for the government’s fullest participation in jobs fair. Certainly, the government will compete with the private sector in the search for the best talent — an indication that government positions are no longer limited to relatives, friends and padrinos.

As far as I know, anybody whether qualified or not, can get a plantilla position in government as long as he/she has a padrino, with usual backers like a politician or a government official. Hopefully, this jobs fair would arm job applicants with civil service eligibility, or licensed by the Professional Regulation Commission, and other qualifications and expertise to apply for a public sector job without the usual padrino. 

The huge number of public sector vacancies included in the jobs fair means that the padrino system is no longer the norm in government. It’s about time for the bureaucracy to be infused with the best talents to make it more effective in the delivery of public service. Its downside, though, is that the government will be directly competing with the private sector in the search for skilled workers and the best talents they can get and employ.

And to prove the jobs fair is not just another government propaganda, there will be two giant electronic boards that will announce who among the job applicants are really hired on the spot and what government agency or private company hired them. It’s like a scoreboard where we shall see who wins in the battle against joblessness.