People Powwow: A PNoy ‘boss’ in Saudi Arabia

BY HERBERT VEGO

THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) always reserves scholarship slots for “students in a hurry,” according to Regional Director Toni June Tamayo.  There are technical-vocational courses that could be hurdled in a few months and qualify graduates to work abroad.

I believe him.  In 2008 or six years ago, I recommended a scholar to TESDA.  In half a year of training, Rey Molina of Cabatuan, Iloilo earned his national certificate II in welding. With that piece of paper proving his welding competence, he applied for work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and got the job.

Rey is still there, coming home very occasionally for brief vacation. He stays single so he could stash away enough money if and when he decides to bring home a wife.

Like many other overseas Filipino workers, Rey would have liked to flex his muscle in his native land.

But how could he do it without “demoting” himself? Welders are not well-paid here.

On the contrary, experienced Filipino welders in Saudi Arabia are “pirated” for much higher income in Australia, Norway or New Zealand.

The truth of the matter is that the Philippine government itself is half-hearted in welcoming returning overseas Filipino workers because its own survival hinges on remittances from seamen, nurses, teachers, teachers-turned-house helpers, welders, carpenters, masons and plumbers, among others. OFWs prevent local economy from tumbling down.

Annual global remittances to the Philippines via banks now amount to more or less US $30 billion.

OFWs, of course, do more favor to their employers than to themselves. What they earn in the Middle East pales in comparison to what Middle East native workers make.

In a TV interview, Filipino architect Felino Palafox, who has designed a number of high-rise buildings in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, opined that the fast growth of the aforesaid city stems from its practice of selling oil cheap in their local market, but overpriced in the world market.

Obviously in collusion with the oil cartel, the Philippine government can only say, “Sorry, we can do nothing; the oil industry is deregulated.”

President Noynoy Aquino and the Department of Energy officials refuse to check the abusive prices that Shell, Petron, Caltex and the “small players” simultaneously tag their products with.

It is not uncommon that these greedy companies suddenly and simultaneously hike gasoline and diesel prices by one peso to two pesos per liter, using “world market” as excuse without waiting for old stock to run out.

Gasoline prices were reported to have slid yesterday. But everybody knows it will rise even higher next time.

Needless to say, the government aggravates the problem. A chunky portion of the amount we pay for oil products is the 12 percent value-added tax (VAT). Despite public clamor for minimizing the VAT, Malacañang  has turned a deaf ear.

How could P-Noy be so insensitive? Aren’t we the bosses he had promised to obey?

No less than the World Bank has warned that the Philippines is among the “highly exposed” nations to rising poverty, with 33 percent of us Filipinos living below the poverty line./PN