Gasping for sustainable productivity

OUR human resources – the skilled and unskilled laborers who toil for a living for the survival of their families – are the cogs in the wheel of sustainable productivity.

Sustainable productivity means survival of the Philippine population, now numbering more than108 million individuals, expected to hit 110 million in 2020 and 125 million in 2030 at our annual growth rate of 1.52 percent.

Unfortunately, the development of our economy has lagged behind our population growth, what with  90 percent of the country’s wealth in the hands of only 10 percent of the people. The poorest of the poor cannot afford three square meals a day.

Unfortunately, some parents still cling to the notion that the more babies they have, the more they contribute to productivity. This belief is ingrained among farmers who expect their children to take over farm work.

Indeed, this country is rich in natural resources. We grow rice, sugar cane, pineapples, bananas and coconuts, among others. Our seas throb with fishes. But have we maximized utilization of these natural resources?

Unfortunately no! For instance, due to illegal logging and upland migration, the country has lost forest cover. From 21 million hectares in 1900, it dwindled to only 5.5 million hectares in 1999, according to the Institute of Environmental Science for Social Change. No update has been made available since then.

A better alternative would have been to strike a balance between income and consumption. An ideal family must only beget as many children as they can feed, clothe and send to school. A good education will assure them of better opportunities for success. Failure to do this would condemn future generations to a vicious cycle of poverty.

Slowly but surely, our entrepreneurs are learning to exploit our natural resources to the hilt. The Guimaras, mango, for example, has a huge export market in Australia. Dried ripe mangoes, done in Cebu, are available in duty-free airport shops everywhere.

We have creative professionals in the arts and sciences – say painting, writing, sculpting, cooking, gardening, sewing, playing instruments, dancing, singing, nursing, care-giving, among others – but there’s not enough local environment for them to bloom.

Therefore we have to “export” labor as well due to lack of opportunities within the country. More than 10 million Filipinos now live and work abroad. The Philippine government, of course, does not discourage this sad reality; our own survival at home now depends on remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

Never before until today have we seen mass migration of Filipino nurses. Even doctors take up nursing in the hope of working in US hospitals.

Those who remain at home have no choice but suffer starvation wages in local hospitals or, worse, work as “volunteers” in the hope of gaining experience that would qualify them for future employment. Obviously, the hospitals are the true beneficiaries of their gullibility.

In his essay “The Indolence of the Filipinos,” Dr. Jose Rizal wrote:

“All the Filipinos, as well as those who have tried to engage in business in the Philippines, know how many documents, what errands, how many stamped papers, how many ordeals of patience are needed to secure from the government business permit for an enterprise. A person must count upon the goodwill of this official, on the influence of that one, on a good bribe to another, in order that the application may not be pigeonholed, a present to the one further on so that he may pass the matter on to his chief?”

Time seems to have stood still since Rizal’s days. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)

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