THIS IS both good and bad news – depending on what sector one belongs to.
Yes, this is the news about the approval of the Senate Bill giving an additional P150 across-the-board increase in the minimum daily wage of workers.
From the reactions of those belonging to the labor sector, the jubilation was already manifest even though it is still a bill in the Senate and will require a corollary bill in the House of Representatives before the two could be harmonized and forwarded to the President for his signature to become a law.
The reactions, however, from the management sector of industries and other businesses, especially from the small and medium enterprise sector, were of dismay and apprehension that either they cannot comply with the law or have to reduce the number of their employees if they have to give the increase in wages to their workers.
Even the big industries represented by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) are cautiously pessimistic about the minimum wage hike proposed in the Senate Bill. They say there has to be a careful study of the possible implications of the law – should the Bill become one – on the viability of the industry and its overall impact on the country’s economy.
The government, the big business group management said, must strike a balance between acceding to the demands of labor and the capacity of businesses to meet the enormous additional human resource expenses that will come with the wage hike law.
Indeed these are arguments from both the labor and management sectors that are hard to refute. But if any stand-off on the issue occurs, the government, the labor and management sectors have to be ready with one common compromise that will make everyone a winner – a win-win solution, that is. And for sure everybody will be happy. Not one sector should be left behind not to create a disgruntled segment of society.
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What? The Davao City Traffic Management Office’s social media page was hacked? And the suspected hacker is believed to be from abroad. This is unusual if we have to assume that the suspected hacker is indeed based in other countries. First, why would he or she be interested in hacking the Social Media page of the CTTMO? What benefits will he/she be able to derive?
Of course, it is not impossible to happen., more so if he is a technology-expert Davaoeno who had been based abroad for so many long years and came back to visit Davao City where he/she might have experienced a demeaning encounter on our city roads with some traffic enforcers during his/her latest visit.
Perhaps, failing to control his/her urge to avenge his/her sad experience, the hacker finds destroying the social media page of the CTTMO the most effective way of exacting revenge.
Now it is our take that should there be any investigation related to the hacking of the CTTMO social media page, it should not be limited to identifying and tracking the hacker but also looking into why the act was done.
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Here is one long-perpetuated anomalous practice of local government administrations. The practice, though abominable, appears to be tolerated by the bureaucracy for political expedience.
We are referring to the so-called “quota system” as a clever way of paying political debts to barangay leaders of mayors or councilors, especially in big and moneyed cities like Davao. Every after the local election, the winning mayor or councilor goes back to the barangay where he or she won and rewards his/her leaders with a specific number of job opportunities, mostly on “job order” basis, to people of the barangay officials’ choice.
In most cases, those recommended for the job opportunities are the barangay officials’ immediate family members – the wife or husband, nephews and nieces, or those closest of friends.
These “quota” employees are bloating the local government “job order” or contractual workers up to several thousand. Many of them end up as “ghost workers.”
And perhaps one of the nastiest characteristics that emanate from this “quota” scheme is the report coming from the “lucky” quota employees. Some barangay officials having the privilege of recommending are asking for a percentage from out of their quota employees’ monthly pay.
Maybe there has to be a way for the City Human Resources Office to monitor the barangay-based LG worker under the “quota system”. It is one way of justifying the huge amount of money needed to pay the employees’ salaries and benefits.
