A Pair of Beacons in the South

February 9, 2005

As a teacher, I often question whether the Filipino educator is world-class.  Suffice it to say that a pair of Iligan City high school teachers have answered that question by proving that limited resources is no barrier to a good educational experience. Congratulations to Lorna Tumampil and Sherlita Daguisonan who each have won Microsoft’s Philippine Innovative Teachers Leadership Awards.  Mabuhay kayo!  (see the Inq7 Story).

Can We Please Re-Classify One Million ICT Jobs?

The CICT released the figures showing the break down of the 1 million ICT jobs into sectors.  I’ve been trying to locate my copy of the document but if memory serves, it showed a disturbing trend wherein a greater proportion of ICT jobs will come from the Contact Center/BPO sector while the number of jobs in the software sector will proportionately decrease.  This means that  by 2010,  our ICT sector will be dominated by low value-added ICT workers while high value-added ICT workers will proportionately decline.  This means that at some point in the next 5 years, the CICT will focus its attention more on a low value-added  sector.  While this may be inevitable given the impressive growth of the Contact Center/BPO sector, I don’t understand why this is a desirable result. 

For me, it’s a question of classification.  Once we recognize that Contact Center/BPO jobs are not ICT jobs but ICT-enabled jobs, then we can start focusing on the true ICT sector.  And that sector needs the support of government in order to grow and compete in the global arena.  The government must remove low-value added jobs as the centerpiece of the 1 million ICT jobs and reclassify it appropriately so that the CICT can train its sights on growing the high value-added ICT sector (i.e., software development, etc.).  It’s far more difficult and challenging task but one that the CICT can ably perform if it wanted to.

Jose Almonte on Economic Liberalization & Political Freedom

What follows is a  speech read by Gen. Jose T. Almonte, National Security Adviser in the Ramos Administration, to a gathering of the Foundation for Economic Freedom Fellows last January 18. The Foundation for Economic Freedom is a not-for-profit, nongovernment organization that has relentlessly advocated for good governance and market-friendly reforms in the last eight years. Its fellows are among the country’s most notable economists, political analysts, business practioners, and public officials.

Can the Philippines deal with its problems democratically?
By JOSE T. ALMONTE AN ONSET OF CULTURAL PESSIMISM?
Three and a half years into her rule, President Arroyo has yet to relieve Filipinos of their despair about our country’s prospects, which had befallen them during the Estrada Administration.

So far, she has failed to deploy the moral power latent in the Presidency, which alone can elicit the civic commitment of citizens.

So far, she has been little more than the consummate politician — whose first obligation is to those who had paved her way to power. And, since her support in the May 2004 elections had come mostly from the poorer, more patronage-oriented regions of the archipelago, Mrs. Arroyo has accumulated many political debts indeed. (more…)