Celebration of the International Women’s Day staged at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila last Saturday made quite a twist in itself when women from militant groups denounced their peer: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

There was obviously an irony there when, in celebration of their womanhood, these women denounced a fellow woman. Such act underscores the point that womanhood is celebrated not merely by the fact that one is a woman. It also denotes that womanhood is not simply gender classification; it goes beyond being in the female class.

“We are the women men warned us about.

We are the women who know that all issues are ours, who will reclaim our wisdom, reinvent our tomorrow, question and redefine everything, including power.

We have worked now for decades to name the details of our need, rage, hope, vision. We are weary of listing refrains on our suffering-to-entertain or be simply ignored. We are down with vague words and real waiting: famishing for action, dignity, joy. We intend to do more than merely endure and survive.

They have tried to deny us, define us, defuse us, denounce us; to jail, enslave, exile, gas, rape, beat, burn, bury-and bore us. Yet nothing, not even the offer to save their failed system, can grasp us.
For thousands of years, women have had responsibility without power-while men have had power without responsibility. We offer those men who risk being brothers a balance, a future, a hand. But with or without them, we will go on.

For we are the Old Ones, the New Breed, the Natives who came first but lasted, indigenous to an utterly different dimension. We are the girl child in Zambia, the grandmother in Burma, the woman in El Salvador and Afghanistan, Finland and Fiji. We are whole-song and rainforest; the depth-wave rising huge to shatter glass power on the shore; the lost and despised who, weeping, stagger into the light.

All this we are. We are intensity, energy, the people speaking—who no longer will wait and who cannot on our tongues.

….We are the women who will transform the world.”

THE current trend by which our peso is performing as against the dollar, has been noted by economists as excellent, very promising and most importantly, beneficial.

To quote a news source at Inq7.net, posted September 5, 2006:

“The peso Monday touched a four-year high of 50.475 to the dollar before closing at 50.48, bolstered by strong foreign buying of stocks and bonds and the increasing likelihood that the Federal Reserve Board will keep US interest rates unchanged for the remainder of the year, currency traders said.

The end rate, up 25.5 centavos from Friday’s 50.735 to the dollar, is the strongest closing rate since July 22, 2002.”

From the economist’s point of view, this is indeed a promising statistics. The improving status of the Philippine peso is one indication that further inflation rate will be prevented, thus placing our economy at a better standing.

Yet, what is the real significance of all these figures - percentages, highs and lows of trading - to the common people? Will their lives be DIRECTLY benefited with these statistical data? Will the prices of basic commodities become more affordable when the peso rate goes down? And assuming there are benefits - until when will this improved peso status last?

For all we know - since most Filipinos have family members and relatives working abroad and earning dollars, many of them are not pleased, but instead dismayed with the going down of peso rate vis-a-vis the dollar.

Admittedly this attitude by many of us shows ignorance on the implication of a stronger peso. But the peole are tired of just figures presented before them. If truly there are benefits, the people want them to be real, direct, actual, immediate and translated to their day to day living. After all, they can’t just sit before their dining tables with blank stares at dried fish and tomatoes, and be thankful that indeed the peso rate is improving for their benefit!

THE TREND toward which our workers in various fields and professions are moving — that of going abroad — is putting our country at a great disadvantage.

True, we are benefiting in terms of dollar remittances which our country badly need to boost our ailing economy, but our own need for competent workforce is dangerously at stake.

We say “dangerously at stake” because we also need the services of these workers as much - if not more - as other nations do.

Take for instance our nurses. If we make a random survey in local hospitals alone, it is very evident that most of them are inferiorly staffed in terms of nurses. By this, we mean that the more experienced and learned nurses have already gone to foreign shores for better employment, thus leaving behind the neophytes who have barely gotten out of school. Now, these hospitals handle the most delicate job of treating the sick and saving lives of people. If the medical staffs manning them lack training, we can just imagine how perilous it is for the millions of Filipinos to entrust their safety with incompetent hands.

Same is true in the field of education. We know that the education of the youth is the most vital step in achieving our country’s goal of full development. Yet, where are the better teachers now? They have flown to other countries that can give them higher pay and better opportunities.

We take pride in having the greatest number of overseas workers. We consider it an honor that foreign employers take preference for Filipinos. But alas, while other countries benefit from the expertise of our OFWs, here we are, contenting ourselves with the residual working class.

EDITORIAL

IT IS clear as day, President Gloria Arroyo’s administration is very keen in sending more workers abroad, if only for the mighty dollar. The government indirectly admits that our economy will be in limbo without our dollar earners abroad. Hence, having more OFWs to send remittances here, is a much welcome boon to our ever dwindling economy.

Come to think of it, however, sending our workers abroad poses two great problems: One, our workforce is rapidly thinning. We do have nurses and teachers left here, but they are mostly those with very little experience, it any at all. In hospitals, for instance, very noticeable is the fact that nurses are getting younger every time, because the more experienced and mature ones have left for way, way more lucrative jobs abroad. Two, when workers leave for jobs abroad, they leave their families behind. Chances are these workers are either husbands or wives who have families, spouses and children here in the Philippines. But because the dollar beckons, and the dream of a better and more comfortable life is inviting in other shores, these workers and their families have to suffer the sad and difficult consequences of separation.

There must be a way to make our workers stay. But how? Opportunities here are very few, very slim. Unless there are better options in their native land, these OFWs will continually depart for better work, better life in foreign lands.

 EDITORIAL

“Why should I risk my life and limb for a job that does not even guarantee security for my family when I am gone? Why should I give everything for a job that cannot even feed my family well?”

These were the answers we got from a local policeman when we asked his opinion about the common observation that policemen are not doing their jobs well, and in most cases, are even guilty of abuses such as ‘tong’ collection.

We cannot entirely blame the policemen. To date, they receive the lowest starting pay among all government personnel. Their take home pay is not commensurate to the service required of them, and the risk that goes along. Something must be done to allevaiate their predicament so that in return, they too will not hesitate to serve the people better.

It has been noted that the main reason why many of our policemen engage in unfavorable practices is the meager income they have. Therefore, thrusts by the government to give them better pay and more benefits will help eradicate these malpractices, and they (policemen) will reciprocally exert their all-out effort in protecting the community.

WITH THE DESIRE to land on lucrative jobs abroad, many students nowadays prefer to take up Nursing course. Indeed, if a survey among fourth year high school students is  randomly conducted on the spot as to what course they plan to take in college, results can be well predicted that almost half of them would pick Nursing as their choice.

In view of this ‘boom’ in the Nursing Course, schools all over the country have jumped into the playing field, taking advantage of the demand at hand. Thus the rise also of schools offering this much in demand course - even hospitals have notably opened their own schools for Nursing.

The more the merrier, so to speak. But the apprehension on the quality of education and instruction surfaces. For the interest of profit, Schools for Nursing will naturally invite and admit as many enrollees as they can. But with a big number of enrollees, are these schools still able to provide competitive standard of instruction?

Come to think of it, Nursing is one of the most expensive courses. Would that the students be given their money’s worth.

Editorial (January 24-30, 2006) 

The latest victory of Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has made him P2 million dollars richer. Converted to Philippine peso, that is a whooping 100 million pesos! It seems though that it is not only Manny who is  happily watching the figures roll, but also those who bet on the chammp, especialy those who went all the way to Las Vegas to gamble their money on the game.

But the significance of Manny’s victory does not end in the prize but more so on what it did to the whole Philippine nation.

On that Sunday, January 22, millions of Filipinos were glued before the television sets, watching, praying, cheering, hoping for Manny’s win.

In that one single moment in Philippine history, the Filipinos were finally united in one aspiration and goal - the crown for Manny. If it were only possible to capture that instant with a single camera - it could have been a great spectacle - where we could see ourselves holding our breaths as our kababayan gave punch after punch to his opponent, in order for himk to gain honor and prestige for the country.

And when finally Manny knocked down Morales on the 10th round, there was a unison of cheers all over the country. Ah, at last - we were not fighting nor bickering against each other…. finally, one voice, one goal.

The two million dollar check that Manny received from his win can give the boxer and his family comfortable life through the years. Yet Manny’s true joy should not depend on what is in the bag - but rather on the honor, pride and virtue that he has contributed to his native land.