I was shocked, angered then ultimately saddened.
Are we where we are because we just don’t care? Are we where we are because we’ve been so brow beaten by our corrupt politicians over the decades that it is now impossible to care?
So where did all this come from?
This week, the Department of Labor & Employment conducted a technical and advisory services information session in Valencia for small, micro business enterprises.
The intent of the session was to arm small business owners with what they must do to give their employees not just a job, but a decent job. So not only was the talk focussed on regular, overtime, premium wages, financial benefits like SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-Ibig but what we must do when an employee asks for a leave of absence. I learned a lot especially from the Q&A which followed the formal presentation. And was pleased to know the name of the website to go to for DOLE’s handbook on the subject.
A gentleman in the crowd asked the first question which I found difficult to understand because he refused to use the microphone but I got enough of it to grasp that he was asking about the often unfair treatment of government employees. Treatment that does not often follow the DOLE recommendations or mandates.
I could not help myself. I had to say something to DOLE about his statements. In essence I said, prefaced by with all due respect, why would we private citizens comply to DOLE’s requirements if the government itself does not comply?
A DOLE representative answered that their mandate is focused on the private sector and concerns expressed by the gentleman and myself should be channeled to the congressman of the district. The more voices raised, the greater the chance of it being prioritized. To which I said OK, I’m one voice.
Facing the over-200+ participants in the room I asked, “Please raise your hand if you want your voice to be added to the list.” Not one single person raised his hand. Not even the gentleman.
In fractions of seconds, I experienced a string of emotions – shock that they all looked at me with blank faces, anger that they could not be bothered to react, sadness that we have been reduced to lemmings.
These are small business owners — people who have a level of control in their lives, and, therefore, in my naive brain able to form an opinion about a contentious issue and express it. It appears apathy is now just too imbedded in our psyche, however.
As I write this piece, JG Umbac’s recent posting in the MetroPost “Employee Glut” makes me wonder whether it is their disillusion with government employees and the behavior of entitlement that prevented them from wanting to speak up for government employees.
But reading the body language in the room, there wasn’t even the shaking of the heads, the frowns, the murmurs that I’d expect from a group disagreeing with me. Nada. Just a wall of stone faces.
Or was retribution on their minds? After all, retribution is the name of the game in the Philippines.
Although I have no love for many government employees who are indeed lazy or incompetent, I believe everyone is entitled to a decent job.
Will a decent job turn that mindset around? I am paid well, I am treated well, my efforts are recognized, I have job security so therefore, I am going to do my very best to prove I am worthy of these. So no watching of YouTube or TicToc, no Facebook browsing and posting whilst on the job. And definitely, no cleaning and buffing my fingernails. (I experienced this firsthand back in 2020 in Valencia. At that time, I thought, Only in da Pilipins.
Diana Banogon-Bugeya (She/Her)
