Wednesday, September 27, 2006 Legaspi: Where are Arroyo's promises? By Carlos Legaspi Jr. Questions That Matter
A FEW months after President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address, a.k.a. geographical lecture, nothing is happening. Or shall I say, the opposite is happening? Happy celebration of the anniversary of the dark years of the Marcos regime and welcome to the darkest times of our history.
Our dear president promised a super region. Now, we are in need of a Superman to run our region. The dreaded oil spill disaster is not yet over. The charms of Arroyo are not what we need now. We need action and solution. We need an "aksyon agad" person and not a planner or an intellectual debater.
Another issue that fell into deaf ears is the Charter change proposals of our dear Arroyi. She promised, I do not know what to the LGU officials. These little guys gave Arroyo a hundred plus claps during her lecture on Philippine Geography. Every time, Arroyo mentioned the constitutional change, the local executives clapped their hands and feet.
What I fear most is the deafening silence of the Cha-cha issue. I hope that the people around Arroyo are not cooking things up that one morning we wake-up with having the changes implemented in Executive Orders. Cha-cha is very favorable to the LGU's, it might extend their offices. I hope they wake up and see the evils of those proposing this change.
Arroyo promised educational assistance too. She was very promising and the young people are really expectant of the beautiful promises of Arroyo. She promised finishing scholarships for Call Center trainees. Wow, here we go again, financing the multinational programs was my reaction after hearing an empty promise from Arroyo.
Anyway, I have heard that Arroyo has allotted a part of the national budget to train our brethren in manipulating answering machines and answering the queries of foreigners. Critically, the pronouncement was like closing opportunities of getting higher education form colleges and Universities. It seems that a degree course is already overtaken by a crash course in call center slaves.
Employment is brought by these Call Centers to the country but it is making the productive lives of the youth idle and useless. I agree that a shining salary is inviting but it steals the fruitful years of those working in the system. One would spend at least eight hours of his day in front of a computer to answer questions. Due to our need for bigger salaries, one would even spend all his day in the center to get high pay. This is disgusting. The legislators should pass a law that would regulate multinational companies from stealing the fruitful years of the youth. Another promise of Arroyo was employment. This is such a great lie. The Arroyo administration is only giving the labor force of the country to the foreign multinational companies.
An acquaintance of mine approached me last week and told me that because of Arroyo's salary rationalization policy, he is asked to either resign or retire. Soon, there were three who asked me about it and lastly, my brother-in-law also told me about it and he too was a victim of this unjust Executive Order of Arroyo and DBM. They were told that those who are under salary Grade 9 are either asked to retire or resign or they also have the option to wait for a Civil service position, which will be co-terminus with the officers. This is irrational for the term of those in appointive offices will end next year. The E.O. is irrational, inhuman and stupid.
I am calling my all those affected by this inhuman and unjust E.O. to organize and let your voices be heard. Do it now!
So, let us not wait for the empty promises of Arroyo. We have to do everything on our own. The administration is intoxicated with power and authority. All they think of are themselves and the "little people" are forgotten. Anyway, promises are made to be broken.
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