A casual worker's letter to the President

Mr. President, I am a casual sales lady working in one of the biggest malls in Cebu. The management calls me and my fellow casuals by the name “contractuals.” Every five months, my contract ends and I have to practically beg for the renewal of my job contract because my husband is only a security guard and we have four children, three of whom are going to school. My daily wage and my husband's income, less multiple statutory deductions, are not enough for food, rental, water bill and power bill, the daily fare and the daily expenses for my kids in school. I live in an urban poor colony in B. Rodriguez in front of the Cebu TB Pavillion. I am taking the liberty to write you through this column because, in all your speeches, you always project the image of a servant leader, who considers us, the people, as your boss.

You promised us many times to create more jobs and viable means of livelihood for the poor like us. You have promised us adequate housing for the masses and affordable education and medicines. You have raised our expectations when you promised to focus on poverty reduction and a concrete solution to the growing unemployment and underemployment problems. Your people keep on holding job fairs but there are no significant results because of what your bureaucrats call “job mismatch.” We have heard this jargon long time ago, even under the administration of your late mother. But nothing really purposive and coherent has been done to address the “chicken-and-egg” enigma. The DepEd, as well as Labor Secretary and the TESDA head are under you directly. What instructions have you given them to confront this “job mismatch” phenomena, both on the long-term and the short-term time table?

Apart from forcibly ejecting the urban settlers to give way to big malls owned by my employer, what is the comprehensive housing master plan of your administration, Mr. President? Apart from a few thousand pesos offer to buy out the “squatters”, what long-term solution is your housing czar planning for us, your bosses? Is PAG-IBIG really for socialized housing, or is it just operating like commercial housing developers' firm? Is PHILHEALTH really a socialized universal health care program or merely a conduit to help private hospitals and highly-paid medical professionals collect from our monthly contributions? Is the SSS, like the GSIS and the Employees Compensation, pro-labor or anti-labor? Why do these agencies keep on denying claims for medical, disability and death benefits, while the GSIS President's salary and perks totaled 17 million for one year alone?

Mr. President, why are the big landed estates, owned by influential and well-connected, politically entrenched families, not subjected to the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, while the small landowners are being forced to give up their ancestral lands to be given to more affluent tenants? Why are big malls allowed by your government to engage in contractualization, while their owners pride themselves being among the richest in Asia and in the world? Why are our labor officials tolerating these malls to violate labor standards and other labor laws? Why are regular workers being eased out, forcibly separated and are being replaced by outsourced employees, with much lower wages, without basic rights and denied of security of tenure? Why are labor officials allegedly hobnobbing with powerful owners of malls? Is it only because they give free spaces to job fairs, which end up only in job mismatch?

I have sisters who are OFWs. Why are your embassy officials refusing to help undocumented Filipinos who just want to be repatriated and are now encamping right in front of the Riyadh Embassy? Why is your government favoring the side of Malaysia as against the position of the Sultanate of Sulu, who are your own people? Why are your own local hires working in the POLO Offices and consular units not enjoying benefits while they are tasked to take care of the OFWs? Mr. President, I have a hundred and one questions to ask because I am not seeing any concrete steps to really fulfill your promises before the end of your term. I am just a humble sales girl but I am a college graduate and I know my rights and duties as a Filipino. In your coming SONA, Mr. President, are you, by any chance, answering my questions? I'm sure these are the same questions that every concerned Filipino would like you to answer to your bosses. I do hope that you shall not fail us who voted for you.