Planet Philippines (Calgary Edition) March 16-31, 2012 Issue

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LEANDRO MILAN .................................................................................. Editor-in-ChiefPEPPER MARCELO ............................................................................... Assistant EditorARNEL RIvAL ........................................................................................ Layout ArtistROMY FLORANTE .................................................................................. PhotographerDIANA PAMELA TRISTE ........................................................................ Editorial Assistant

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study re-cently pub-lished by multinational financial ser-vices firm HsBC says the Phil ippines, a middle-in-

come country with about 26 percent of its population liv-ing below the poverty line, will be the 16th largest econo-my in the world by 2050.

By then, according to the study, the Philippines will have outper-formed all of its southeast Asian neighbors, including singapore.

the HsBC study cites the Phil-ippines’ growing population, which is said to meet the growing demands for labor as more investments come in, as one of the factors that will help the country significantly prog-ress over the next four decades.

the rosy projection for the Phil-ippines has thrilled some, but has also caused others to raise their eyebrows.

the study, titled “the World in 2050”, has refueled the debate over whether the country’s growing population is really an advantage or a drag on the Philippines’ quest to becoming a developed economy

GROWING POPULATIONBoon

By MiCHEllE v. remo

orAn economist points out that the growth in the country’s

population is driven by poor households who cannot afford to provide education and other basic needs for their children. Consequently, these children grow up not getting decent jobs

and end up being poor themselves.

BanE? the poverty cycle starts when poor families have too many children that grow up with inadequate education and skills.

economists believe that the problem of poverty is easier to solve than the problem of not having enough people.

over the long run.the release of the study came

amid ongoing talks on the Repro-ductive Health (RH) bill, which is both being strongly pushed by sup-porters and ardently blocked by critics.

some economists say the bill, which seeks to promote family planning, is long overdue and has been one of the missing pieces for faster economic growth; others thumb it down, cautioning against what they consider as its potentially adverse effects on the economy.

dr. Ernesto M. Pernia, an eco-nomics professor from the univer-sity of the Philippines and a former economist from the Asian develop-ment Bank, says a growing popula-tion serves as an advantage for an economy only if it meets the quality of labor required by businesses.

the problem with the Philip-pines, he says, is that growth in its population is driven by poor house-holds who cannot afford to provide education and other basic needs for their children. Consequently, he says, these children grow up finding difficulty in getting jobs and end up


An educated work force is an essential requirement in order for an economy to develop and prosper.

being poor themselves. This trend leads to the problem of inter-gen-erational poverty, he says.

“It seems that HSBC, in drawing its conclusion, just considered the size of the population, completely ignoring the fact that for a labor force to become an asset, it must be educated,” Pernia says, describing the conclusion of the HSBC study as “shoddy.”

Pernia says policymakers should acknowledge that resources—both of private households and the govern-ment—are just not enough to edu-cate all Filipino children.

This point is substantiated both by the significant number of out-of-school youths who belong to households that cannot support them, and the insufficiency of pub-lic schools, classrooms, and other facilities needed to provide good-quality education to all the coun-try’s school-aged children.

The problem of poverty has been cited by many international institutions, including the ADB and the World Bank, as one of the big-gest challenges that the Philippines has to overcome.

While other Southeast Asian countries were able to trim their poor populations over the years, the Philippines has seen its poverty in-

cidence rise.Latest government statistics

show that the number of poor Fili-pinos stood at 26.5 percent of the Philippine population in 2009, up from 26.4 percent in 2006 and 24.4 percent in 2003.

The poverty rate in the Philip-pines in 2009 was much higher than Indonesia’s 13 percent, Thailand’s 8.1 percent, and Malaysia’s 3.8 per-cent.

Pernia opines that the projection that the Philippines will have out-performed all its Southeast Asian neighbors by 2050 was highly un-realistic given the country’s rising poverty. Another problem hindering growth is the lack of investments, which Pernia says would need an

educated workforce to come into the country.

Foreign direct investments into the Philippines was estimated to be just a little over a $1 billion in 2011, paling in comparison with Malay-sia’s $10 billion and Indonesia’s close to $20 billion.

Total investments, including those of locals, stood at only 15.6

percent of the P h i l i p p i n e s ’ gross domes-tic product in 2010. This fig-ure was inferior compared with Cambodia’s 17.2 percent, Malay-sia’s 21 percent, Thailand’s 26 percent, Indone-sia’s 32 percent, and Vietnam’s 39 percent.

The HSBC study has caused not only an economist but also a former president to ex-press his doubts.

F o r m e r President Fidel V. Ramos says the projection of the HSBC study was pleasing, but stressed that it was a fallacy. “It is not the quantity but the quality of the labor force that counts,” Ramos says.

He says that

without a strong family planning program that will address poverty, becoming a progressive country is just not possible.

Ramos cites another study, commissioned by the Asian Devel-opment Bank and released last year, that projected the Philippines to remain among a group of slowest-growing economies in Asia by 2050 given existing problems on poverty, weakness of institutions, and lack of investments, among others.

Ramos says the country, first and foremost, has to address the problem of poverty—adding that population management is a pru-dent way to do it—if it is to become one of the most progressive econo-mies.

Meantime, there are also econo-mists who agreed with the HSBC’s claim that a growing population will help the country’s efforts to-ward progress.

Bernardo De Vera, econom-ics professor from the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), an Opus Dei institution, which opposes the RH bill, says that be-fore one harps on the significance of quality over quantity of popu-lation, the point that a sufficient number of population is needed to run an economy should first be es-tablished.

De Vera opines that the prob-lem of poverty, although a heavy burden, is easier to solve than the problem of not having enough people. He says controlling popula-tion growth poses the serious threat of population aging and dwindling number of human resources, which many advanced economies now face.

He says the projection that some

more developed economies like Singapore will be overtaken by the Philippines by 2050 hinges on the fact that the former are now facing serious problems of population ag-ing.

De Vera also disagrees with the notion that there are not enough re-sources to educate all school-aged children in the country. He says government resources, if efficiently monitored and allocated, should be able to accommodate the educa-tion needs of Filipino children be-longing to households that cannot financially afford sending kids to school.

Dr. Victor A. Abola, also an economics professor from the UA&P, says a large population is an advantage rather than a drag on economic growth based on two fronts—advancement of knowledge and economies of scale.

“Advances in knowledge are faster in a large population because intelligence and genius is not con-fined to the rich. It is normally distributed, and, therefore, with a larger population you would have an absolutely larger number of out-standing people who do make a dif-ference,” Abola says.

He adds that economies of scale (which happens when cost of per-unit production declines as vol-ume increases) can be more easily achieved with a large population. Countries with smaller population have to rely on the export markets just to achieve economies of scale, he explains.

On the HSBC’s projection that the Philippines can become one of the biggest economies in the world by 2050, both De Vera and Abola say that such a projection is realis-tic.

De Vera says ongoing efforts of the government to improve gover-nance and rising contributions from the private sector as far as invest-ments are concerned should bear positive results over the long term.

Abola says existing resources of the Philippines, including hu-man capital, will help the country become progressive decades from now.

Although people disagree over whether the country’s growing population is boon or bane for the economy, there is a consensus that good-quality education and train-ing are badly needed to have the human resources required to at-tract more job-generating invest-ments, which in turn are neces-sary to sustain a robust growth for the Philippines. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) n

“It is not the quantity but the quality of the labor force that counts,” says former President Ramos.


An educated work force is an essential requirement in order for an economy to develop and prosper.

being poor themselves. This trend leads to the problem of inter-gen-erational poverty, he says.

“It seems that HSBC, in drawing its conclusion, just considered the size of the population, completely ignoring the fact that for a labor force to become an asset, it must be educated,” Pernia says, describing the conclusion of the HSBC study as “shoddy.”

Pernia says policymakers should acknowledge that resources—both of private households and the govern-ment—are just not enough to edu-cate all Filipino children.

This point is substantiated both by the significant number of out-of-school youths who belong to households that cannot support them, and the insufficiency of pub-lic schools, classrooms, and other facilities needed to provide good-quality education to all the coun-try’s school-aged children.

The problem of poverty has been cited by many international institutions, including the ADB and the World Bank, as one of the big-gest challenges that the Philippines has to overcome.

While other Southeast Asian countries were able to trim their poor populations over the years, the Philippines has seen its poverty in-

cidence rise.Latest government statistics

show that the number of poor Fili-pinos stood at 26.5 percent of the Philippine population in 2009, up from 26.4 percent in 2006 and 24.4 percent in 2003.

The poverty rate in the Philip-pines in 2009 was much higher than Indonesia’s 13 percent, Thailand’s 8.1 percent, and Malaysia’s 3.8 per-cent.

Pernia opines that the projection that the Philippines will have out-performed all its Southeast Asian neighbors by 2050 was highly un-realistic given the country’s rising poverty. Another problem hindering growth is the lack of investments, which Pernia says would need an

educated workforce to come into the country.

Foreign direct investments into the Philippines was estimated to be just a little over a $1 billion in 2011, paling in comparison with Malay-sia’s $10 billion and Indonesia’s close to $20 billion.

Total investments, including those of locals, stood at only 15.6

percent of the P h i l i p p i n e s ’ gross domes-tic product in 2010. This fig-ure was inferior compared with Cambodia’s 17.2 percent, Malay-sia’s 21 percent, Thailand’s 26 percent, Indone-sia’s 32 percent, and Vietnam’s 39 percent.

The HSBC study has caused not only an economist but also a former president to ex-press his doubts.

F o r m e r President Fidel V. Ramos says the projection of the HSBC study was pleasing, but stressed that it was a fallacy. “It is not the quantity but the quality of the labor force that counts,” Ramos says.

He says that

without a strong family planning program that will address poverty, becoming a progressive country is just not possible.

Ramos cites another study, commissioned by the Asian Devel-opment Bank and released last year, that projected the Philippines to remain among a group of slowest-growing economies in Asia by 2050 given existing problems on poverty, weakness of institutions, and lack of investments, among others.

Ramos says the country, first and foremost, has to address the problem of poverty—adding that population management is a pru-dent way to do it—if it is to become one of the most progressive econo-mies.

Meantime, there are also econo-mists who agreed with the HSBC’s claim that a growing population will help the country’s efforts to-ward progress.

Bernardo De Vera, econom-ics professor from the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), an Opus Dei institution, which opposes the RH bill, says that be-fore one harps on the significance of quality over quantity of popu-lation, the point that a sufficient number of population is needed to run an economy should first be es-tablished.

De Vera opines that the prob-lem of poverty, although a heavy burden, is easier to solve than the problem of not having enough people. He says controlling popula-tion growth poses the serious threat of population aging and dwindling number of human resources, which many advanced economies now face.

He says the projection that some

more developed economies like Singapore will be overtaken by the Philippines by 2050 hinges on the fact that the former are now facing serious problems of population ag-ing.

De Vera also disagrees with the notion that there are not enough re-sources to educate all school-aged children in the country. He says government resources, if efficiently monitored and allocated, should be able to accommodate the educa-tion needs of Filipino children be-longing to households that cannot financially afford sending kids to school.

Dr. Victor A. Abola, also an economics professor from the UA&P, says a large population is an advantage rather than a drag on economic growth based on two fronts—advancement of knowledge and economies of scale.

“Advances in knowledge are faster in a large population because intelligence and genius is not con-fined to the rich. It is normally distributed, and, therefore, with a larger population you would have an absolutely larger number of out-standing people who do make a dif-ference,” Abola says.

He adds that economies of scale (which happens when cost of per-unit production declines as vol-ume increases) can be more easily achieved with a large population. Countries with smaller population have to rely on the export markets just to achieve economies of scale, he explains.

On the HSBC’s projection that the Philippines can become one of the biggest economies in the world by 2050, both De Vera and Abola say that such a projection is realis-tic.

De Vera says ongoing efforts of the government to improve gover-nance and rising contributions from the private sector as far as invest-ments are concerned should bear positive results over the long term.

Abola says existing resources of the Philippines, including hu-man capital, will help the country become progressive decades from now.

Although people disagree over whether the country’s growing population is boon or bane for the economy, there is a consensus that good-quality education and train-ing are badly needed to have the human resources required to at-tract more job-generating invest-ments, which in turn are neces-sary to sustain a robust growth for the Philippines. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) n

“It is not the quantity but the quality of the labor force that counts,” says former President Ramos.


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MARCH 16-31, 2012 Calgary EditionPLANET PHILIPPINES10

HIS waS a whitening product’s commer-cial tagline a few years back. The ad shows a girl’s face magically being peeled, layer after layer until she turns deathly white. The TV ad ends with the statement: “Your whitest skin ever.”

CAN YOU GET ANY WHITER? We’re obsessed with the idea of looking like snow queens, storybook characters that we will never be, because no matter what we do, we will always be Maria Clara with brown eyes and not even colored contact lenses can hide that fact.By AnA MARiA villanueva-lykes

“why?” I yelled back at the TV, forgetting for a moment that it was called an idiot box for a reason. But I couldn’t help it. The commer-cial made my brown skin bristle. I wonder why ads like these would presume that I would like a pasty pallor. It baffles me and at the same time insults me. why don’t we ever get commercials on bronzers that enhance the morena glow?

a similar TV campaign caught the attention of the media in In-dia, calling the ad - where a man replaces his former love with some-one who had lighter skin - racist. The broadcast journalists were out-raged, saying “she’s unbelievably beautiful, but if you want to get the guy, you have to get whiter.”

I was just as incensed, but as if to appease me, the clip was sudden-ly followed by a commercial show-ing a fair-skinned model surround-ed by her bronze-skinned friends. She is questioned as to why she’s so pale. Has she been using whitening lotion?

The secret? “Hindi siya nakasama sa beach”.

Few commercials like this actu-ally challenge the idea of what con-sumerism wants to capitalize on. white is not necessarily beautiful. Boldly, the commercial states that being white can equate to inactivity, being strapped for cash, and maybe even poor health.

The author (right) during an enlightening experience while getting her tan on with a Swedish friend.

Sunbathing for Pinoys can be a pleasurable experience, yet many choose to hide under the covers and miss out on the blessings of the sun.


HIS waS a whitening product’s commer-cial tagline a few years back. The ad shows a girl’s face magically being peeled, layer after layer until she turns deathly white. The TV ad ends with the statement: “Your whitest skin ever.”

CAN YOU GET ANY WHITER? We’re obsessed with the idea of looking like snow queens, storybook characters that we will never be, because no matter what we do, we will always be Maria Clara with brown eyes and not even colored contact lenses can hide that fact.By AnA MARiA villanueva-lykes

“why?” I yelled back at the TV, forgetting for a moment that it was called an idiot box for a reason. But I couldn’t help it. The commer-cial made my brown skin bristle. I wonder why ads like these would presume that I would like a pasty pallor. It baffles me and at the same time insults me. why don’t we ever get commercials on bronzers that enhance the morena glow?

a similar TV campaign caught the attention of the media in In-dia, calling the ad - where a man replaces his former love with some-one who had lighter skin - racist. The broadcast journalists were out-raged, saying “she’s unbelievably beautiful, but if you want to get the guy, you have to get whiter.”

I was just as incensed, but as if to appease me, the clip was sudden-ly followed by a commercial show-ing a fair-skinned model surround-ed by her bronze-skinned friends. She is questioned as to why she’s so pale. Has she been using whitening lotion?

The secret? “Hindi siya nakasama sa beach”.

Few commercials like this actu-ally challenge the idea of what con-sumerism wants to capitalize on. white is not necessarily beautiful. Boldly, the commercial states that being white can equate to inactivity, being strapped for cash, and maybe even poor health.

The author (right) during an enlightening experience while getting her tan on with a Swedish friend.

Sunbathing for Pinoys can be a pleasurable experience, yet many choose to hide under the covers and miss out on the blessings of the sun.

MARCH 16-31, 2012Calgary Edition PLANET PHILIPPINES11So while the sun worshipers in

the commercial are showing off their tans, the pasty-skinned lead is left cooped up in her office. The com-mercial suggests that she is missing out on the blessings of the sun and a much needed R&R. Although she was pale, she didn’t look ghastly, but the advertisement implies that if she did have a choice, she’d rather be out getting her tan on.

Many women are lovely with their China-doll complexion. Kris Aquino looks like a pretty kabuki doll in her porcelain skin. Gwen Stefani is the quintessential mod-ern Snow White with her pouty red lips set against flawless ivory skin.

Then there are people who no matter what they do, just can’t get a tan. My husband is Caucasian and tanning for him is a futile and frustrating exercise. After baking under the sun for hours, he’d end up with angry red splotches on his cheeks that burn and itch. Like him, some people are naturally fair skinned and they’re beautiful that way.

In the same way, morenas are beautiful in their own skin, but many choose to go lighter, believ-ing that beauty is in the light. For instance, my morena friend, Sum-mer: if not for her sunny person-ality, her name would have been an irony because she shies away from the sun for fear of skin dark-ening. Teasing her, I told her that bronze skin is very cosmopolitan and fashionable. Promptly, she answered, “Pangit na nga ako, mag-papaitim pa?” Correct me if I’m

wrong but, is she saying that be-ing dark makes one even ugly or uglier? Many kayumanggis like her cover themselves in globs of sun block, not because they want to be protected from photoaging or skin cancer, but because they abhor getting darker.

I once took a friend to the pool a day before her wedding. People pointed accusing fingers at me on the day of the wedding. “She dragged the bride to go swimming before the wedding! Lahat ng nagpa-pakasal, nagpapaputi.” The horror! The horror! Never mind that she looked radiant in her tan and white dress.

Ad after ad promises whiter skin. Dermatologists and spas of-fer dermabrasion or exfoliating treatments. Drugstore shelves are stocked with whitening potions. Like the devil, they come in every shape and form from exfoliants, lo-tions, soaps, and yes, even pills. All in the name of erasing the brown pigment that Mother Nature has worked so hard on as protection

from ultraviolet rays that can cause sun spots, skin cancer, and wrinkles. Darker skinned people have the privilege of better coverage from sun exposure, because they have more melanin, that skin pigment that morenas are abundantly en-dowed with. Yet countless choose to peel that protective layer off for a fairer complexion.

It’s almost amusing and ri-diculous at the same time, this whole business of trying to get whiter when on the other side of the planet, people spend hundreds of

dollars to get darker, to look like they spent the weekend at the Riviera. A tan for many equates to a radiant bank account that af-fords one the luxuries of extrav-agant vacations, tanning salons, and high-end bronzers. To many westerners, paleness is lifeless-ness, weakness, and deprivation. White is unfashionable.

I once met a Swedish gal who

had never heard of whitening prod-ucts until I enlightened her. She looked at me wide eyed through her thickly sunscreen slathered face (she’s cursed with a sensitive skin) and said, “What?! Whitening lo-tion?” For her people, who get the sun as often as we get a blue moon, skin whitening is unheard of.

We’re of the darker race so we want to be lighter. They’re light skinned, so they want to be tanned. Is this merely a case of wanting what we do not have? We’re ob-sessed with the idea of looking like snow queens, storybook charac-ters that we will never be, because no matter what we do, we will al-ways be Maria Clara with brown eyes and not even colored contact lenses can hide that fact. But while we put Snow White on a pedestal, maybe we should also remember that the stage is big enough for Ma-ria Makiling. Although what I’d really like to say is throw away all your whitening products and head to the beach. We’re blessed beau-tiful brown children of Bathala; let’s shed not our melanin, but our tops, and allow the sun to paint our shoulders golden.

Can you get any darker? n(The author maintains a travel blog

-- www.anaviajera.com.)

SOLUTIONON PAGE 38

Dermatologists and spas offer dermabrasion or exfoliating treatments to erase the brown pigment on one’s skin.

Morenas are beautiful in their own skin, but many choose to go lighter, believing that beauty is in the light.

DEADLINES FOR THE APRIL 1-15, 2012 ISSUE: BOOKING OF AD SPACE - - - MARCH 21, 2012 SUBMISSION OF AD - - - - - - MARCH 23, 2012 403.667.2645 [email protected]


ONG KONG -- Whenever her Chinese employer is d i s p l e a s e d with her work, a Fili-pina working in one of the

high-rise apartments here is ordered to sit in a corner all day long, her back pressed hard against the cold steel frame of the dining table.

Then comes the battery of ver-bal assault from the employer and her children.

But there are times, too, when her employer spares her the verbal attack. This is when all members of the family literally spit at her.

In another part of this former British colony, another Filipina is locked out of the house unless she covers her feet with plastic shop-ping bags.

She is not allowed to touch anything inside the house unless she wears gloves. Inside her small room, her bed is covered with layers and layers of plastic and spread out newspapers.

Her boss thinks she is dirty.Another Filipina is deprived of

food unless she eats with the dogs.Still another Filipina is not al-

lowed to use the toilet because the sound of flushing water irks her employer, forcing her to use plastic bags to dispose of her waste. The mental and physical toll eventually got her fired.

Inhumane treatmentThese are just some of the

cases of inhumane treatment re-counted by Edwina Antonio, ex-ecutive director of the Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge Limited, a shelter and crisis inter-vention center for distressed do-mestic workers.

“Many of the cases that we receive and act upon are discrimi-natory in nature. Supposedly, if one hires a domestic worker, you entrust her your entire household. What happens is these domestic workers are treated harshly because they are considered slaves who are stripped of their basic rights,” said Antonio.

The Bethune House responds to at least 3,000 calls of distress from domestic helpers -- not only Filipinas but also Indonesians, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Thai, and even mainland Chinese – each year. OFWs in Hong Kong rally to protest racial discrimination and exploitation.

By jEfRy m. tupas

ABUSE, DISCRIMINATION STILL STALK ‘BAGONG BAYANI’‘While the government exports Filipino workers, protecting our welfare is just too weak. There is no support from the government whatsoever for us. We send money, the government benefits from it, but does nothing to protect us during the times when we need protection the most.’

and as human beings,” Antonio said.

Government inactionShe said the Philippine gov-

ernment has long known of the violence inflicted on many Filipina workers in Hong Kong.

“The government plays a ma-jor role here. It needs to do some-thing to end these cases of violence. First, it must change the policy of the two-week rule, which limits the stay of Filipino workers to 14 days upon termination,” she said.

The problem with the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong is that it even makes the lives of the domes-tic workers worse, she claimed.

“Instead of getting help, poor and problematic Filipinas get the blame by the people in the consul-ate. Instead of help, domestic work-ers are scolded for complaining and reporting the abuse that they experience from their employers,” Antonio said.

To the rescueBethune House rescues domes-

tic workers in distress and provides them access to legal help. They also help in the filing of the cases against abusive employers and extend skills development interventions to do-mestic workers in crisis.

“We give them language lessons, cooking lessons and handicraft

These calls for help, she said, are real stories of suffering and hor-ror and, sometimes, near-death ex-periences.

“A Filipina domestic worker was forced by her employers to pay them a jar of peanut butter for every ‘offense’ that she committed. And there was this Indonesian woman who constantly had bruises from canned goods thrown at hear by her angry employer,” Antonio said.

These cases remain common despite the passage of Anti-Racial Discrimination Law.

“These cases are attack on the rights of these women as workers

Filipina maids gather outside a mall in Hong Kong during their regular Sunday get-together.


ONG KONG -- Whenever her Chinese employer is d i s p l e a s e d with her work, a Fili-pina working in one of the

high-rise apartments here is ordered to sit in a corner all day long, her back pressed hard against the cold steel frame of the dining table.

Then comes the battery of ver-bal assault from the employer and her children.

But there are times, too, when her employer spares her the verbal attack. This is when all members of the family literally spit at her.

In another part of this former British colony, another Filipina is locked out of the house unless she covers her feet with plastic shop-ping bags.

She is not allowed to touch anything inside the house unless she wears gloves. Inside her small room, her bed is covered with layers and layers of plastic and spread out newspapers.

Her boss thinks she is dirty.Another Filipina is deprived of

food unless she eats with the dogs.Still another Filipina is not al-

lowed to use the toilet because the sound of flushing water irks her employer, forcing her to use plastic bags to dispose of her waste. The mental and physical toll eventually got her fired.

Inhumane treatmentThese are just some of the

cases of inhumane treatment re-counted by Edwina Antonio, ex-ecutive director of the Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge Limited, a shelter and crisis inter-vention center for distressed do-mestic workers.

“Many of the cases that we receive and act upon are discrimi-natory in nature. Supposedly, if one hires a domestic worker, you entrust her your entire household. What happens is these domestic workers are treated harshly because they are considered slaves who are stripped of their basic rights,” said Antonio.

The Bethune House responds to at least 3,000 calls of distress from domestic helpers -- not only Filipinas but also Indonesians, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Thai, and even mainland Chinese – each year. OFWs in Hong Kong rally to protest racial discrimination and exploitation.

By jEfRy m. tupas

ABUSE, DISCRIMINATION STILL STALK ‘BAGONG BAYANI’‘While the government exports Filipino workers, protecting our welfare is just too weak. There is no support from the government whatsoever for us. We send money, the government benefits from it, but does nothing to protect us during the times when we need protection the most.’

and as human beings,” Antonio said.

Government inactionShe said the Philippine gov-

ernment has long known of the violence inflicted on many Filipina workers in Hong Kong.

“The government plays a ma-jor role here. It needs to do some-thing to end these cases of violence. First, it must change the policy of the two-week rule, which limits the stay of Filipino workers to 14 days upon termination,” she said.

The problem with the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong is that it even makes the lives of the domes-tic workers worse, she claimed.

“Instead of getting help, poor and problematic Filipinas get the blame by the people in the consul-ate. Instead of help, domestic work-ers are scolded for complaining and reporting the abuse that they experience from their employers,” Antonio said.

To the rescueBethune House rescues domes-

tic workers in distress and provides them access to legal help. They also help in the filing of the cases against abusive employers and extend skills development interventions to do-mestic workers in crisis.

“We give them language lessons, cooking lessons and handicraft

These calls for help, she said, are real stories of suffering and hor-ror and, sometimes, near-death ex-periences.

“A Filipina domestic worker was forced by her employers to pay them a jar of peanut butter for every ‘offense’ that she committed. And there was this Indonesian woman who constantly had bruises from canned goods thrown at hear by her angry employer,” Antonio said.

These cases remain common despite the passage of Anti-Racial Discrimination Law.

“These cases are attack on the rights of these women as workers

Filipina maids gather outside a mall in Hong Kong during their regular Sunday get-together.

MARCH 16-31, 2012Calgary Edition PLANET PHILIPPINES13

making. These are good therapy for them, es-pecially while they are waiting for the resolu-tion of their cases. Also we provide cultural, social and education interventions for them, particularly on their rights,” Antonio said.

Rowena dela Cruz, 42, a native of San Pablo, Laguna, said the challenge for the Aquino administration is to check and cor-rect its labor export policy.

“While the government exports Filipino workers, protecting our welfare is just too weak. There is no support from the govern-ment whatsoever for us. We send money, the government benefits from it, but does nothing to protect us during the times when we need

protection the most,” Dela Cruz, a member of Migrante, said.

Garry Martinez, chair of Migrante, said the Aquino administration must waken to the condition of OFWs all over the world, especially because, aside from growing com-plaints of abuses, nearly 30 OFWs are also awaiting execution in the Middle East and China.

“Another thing that this government must do is to show that is has the courage to demand of countries in the Middle East, where OFWs are rampantly abused, to put an end to these abuses,” he said. (Inter-Aksyon.com) n

Filipino domestic workers protest abuses.


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ALL ty-c o o n Henry Sy and tobacco king Lu-cio tan re-mained the top billion-aires in the

Philippines, according to the Forbes magazine’s annu-al list of the world’s wealthi-est released on March 7.

Eduardo cojuangco Jr., described by Forbes as a for-mer Marcos crony, and Ro-berto ongpin, former trade Minister under the Marcos regime, were new additions to the 2012 Forbes Billion-aires list.

Sy, the Philippines’ richest man, and his family ranked 116 in the list with a net worth of $8 billion. the Sy family controls SM Investments corp., which owns the country’s largest mall developer (SM) and bank (Banco De oro Unibank). His daughter teresita Sy-coson was recently named one of Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen.

Lucio tan, 77, ranked 314 in the global billionaires list with a net worth of $3.5 billion. the tan family owns a third of Philip Morris-Fortune tobacco, which dominates the Philippine ciga-rette market. His other compa-nies include the country’s second largest beer maker Asia Brewery, property firm Eton Properties and Philippine Airlines.

Andrew tan, 59, has a net worth of $2.1 billion, landing him on number 601 on the Forbes list. tan’s holding company Alliance Global has interests in property (Megaworld corp.), food and bev-erage (Emperador Distillers Inc.) and fastfood (Golden Arches De-velopment corp., which holds the master franchise for McDon-ald’s). It also has a joint venture with Genting Hong Kong for the development of Resorts World Manila.

Ports operator Enrique Razon Jr. ranked 683 in the billionaires list with $1.9 billion. the 52-year-old businessman controls Inter-national container terminal Ser-vices Inc. (IctSI), whose stock gained more than 30% in the past year.

cojuangco, whose net worth is estimated at $1.3 billion, ranked 960 in the Forbes list. He controls food and beverage conglomerate

FILIPINOS IN FORBES WEALTHIEST LIST It is interesting to note that of the six

wealthiest Filipino tycoons listed in Forbes, five trace their ancestral roots to China. The lone exception is ports mag-

nate Enrique Ra-zon, who has Span-ish ancestry.

San Miguel corp., which is now diversifying into power, infra-structure and heavy industry.

ongpin, 75, has a net worth of $1 billion and is ranked 1153 in the Forbes list. the Harvard Business School graduate has investments in property, gaming, mining and telecommunications. (ABS-CBNnews.com) n

Henry Sy

Lucio Tan

Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.

Enrique Razon Jr. Andrew Tan

Roberto Ongpin

6

MARCH 16-31, 2012 Calgary EditionPLANET PHILIPPINES16 MARCH 16-31, 2012Calgary Edition PLANET PHILIPPINES17

T’S more fun for women climbing the corporate ladder in the Philippines than in most other places in the world: more Filipino women are taking on lead-ership positions in business and more of them enjoy flexible work arrangements. This, according to the Grant Thornton’s International Business report (IBr) released last march 9 by its local member firm Punon-gbayan & Araullo (P&A).

From 35 percent in 2011, the ratio of Filipino wom-en in top corporate positions rose to 39 percent, mak-

ing the Philippines second only to russia, along with Thailand and Botswana, on the list of countries with a growing number of women joining the “C-suite.”

MORE FUN FOR CAREER WOMEN IN PH

By dORIs c. dumlao

A study found that as in most Philippine households, women leaders end up with responsibilities involving finance. This year, 64 percent of Filipino women in senior management were either chief finance officers or were in senior finance positions.

Teresita Sy-Coson, daughter of tycoon Henry Sy, was recently named one of Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen.

The “C-suite” refers to execu-tives belonging to a corporation’s senior management team and is so called because these people usually have a “C” in their official titles, such as chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief finance offi-cer, chief investment officer or chief information officer.

Equal access“The result of the study shows

that top posts in the country are ac-cessible to men and women equal-ly,” said marivic españo, P&A managing partner and Ceo.

The survey looked into the roles women play in senior management and found that as in most Philip-pine households, women leaders end up with responsibilities involv-ing finance. This year, 64 percent of

Filipino women in senior manage-ment were either chief finance of-ficers or were in senior finance posi-tions, up from last year’s 54 percent, the study said.

The Grant Thornton Interna-tional Business report provides insight into the views and expecta-tions of 12,000 businesses across 40 economies. This unique annual survey draws upon 20 years of trend data for most european par-ticipants and nine years for many non-european economies.

The latest data were drawn from interviews with 6,000 businesses across the globe conducted between November 2011 and February 2012. The target respondents were chief ex-ecutive officers, managing directors, chair or other senior executives primar-ily across five sectors: manufacturing

(25 percent), services (25 percent), re-tail (15 percent) and construction (10 percent), with the remaining 25 per-cent spread across all sectors.

Charo Santos-Concio is president and chief operating officer of ABS-CBN, the country’s biggest broadcasting network.

Balancing home and careerFor the first time, the IBr asked

respondents if they offered flexible work arrangements. Sixty-six per-cent of Philippine businesses polled answered yes, above the global aver-age of 52 percent and the Southeast Asian average of 53 percent.

“This is one way of encouraging

women to aim for the top, especial-ly those who have to balance their career with motherhood,” españo said.

But the global picture isn’t look-ing very rosy as the same study showed that the proportion of women holding senior manage-ment posts has been on a steady decline in all major regions of the world except europe since 2009.

results from 2011 and 2012 in the Southeast Asian region showed that although the number of wom-en in top management positions remained above the global average, only the Philippines and Vietnam recorded an uptick in numbers from the past year.

Declining trend“When we started tracking

women in leadership posts in emerg-ing markets such as BrIC (referring to the fast-growing emerging mar-ket bloc Brazil-russia-India-China) and the ones in Southeast Asia, it was very encouraging to see that these dynamic economies were leading the pack in terms of welcoming women in the board-room,” españo said. “So it is a point of concern to see the pro-portion of women business lead-ers shrinking in these countries. Hopefully this doesn’t signal a further drop in the coming years to the point where women are un-derrepresented globally.”

Added españo: “The falling numbers globally should alert busi-ness leaders and get them to start asking why women aren’t at present at the top of the ladder and what can be done about it. Hopefully, we can find more ways to open up those C-suite posts to women and continue to be a good example of gender equal-ity here in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian) region.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer) n

Many Philippine businesses offer flexible

working arrangements to women, enabling them to balance career and

marriage.


OZORRUBIO, Pangasinan - Filomeno de Guzman does not know Sparta from medieval Scotland, but the Philippine swordsmith is an expert at replicating ancient warriors’ tools for killing each other.

A stubby ex-military sergeant who has never set foot abroad, De Guzman and 15 rice farmer-neighbors who moonlight as black-smiths craft old truck leaf springs into things of terrible beauty.

The business feeds an overseas market for replica swords of Roman gladiators, Greek infantry and Japanese samurais, as well as movie-inspired weapons from Braveheart, Conan the Barbarian, and Rambo.

MASTER SWORDSMITHS TO THE WORLDMore than 100 models hang on pegs on De Guzman’s office wall, including copies of short Roman empire infantry swords and a massive broadsword like those used by Spartans against Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

By CECil morella

“Swords are enjoying a renais-sance in Hollywood. That means the storied weapon remains popu-lar, and that works in our favor,” De Guzman, 63, told Agence France-Presse during a visit to his workshop in a farming area of the northern Philippines.

De Guzman never went to uni-versity and confesses he does not know much about ancient history, although he does enjoy learning from movies.

“Hollywood, yes, I love Hol-lywood movies. I watched ‘Brave-heart’, ‘Gladiator’, ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Conan the Barbarian’, ‘Rambo’, and ‘Samurai’, all on DVD,” he said.

De Guzman’s unlikely export business had its origins in him de-ciding to quit the Philippine secu-rity forces in 1980 and taking free government lessons in metalworks.

He began producing kitchen knives using a wood-fired forge in his backyard, set amid vast rice fields in the farming town of Pozorrubio, 180 kilometers north of Manila.

“It’s a good, non-perishable prod-uct. All households need blacksmiths and their knives,” De Guzman ex-plained of his career choice.

However US soldiers deployed at two nearby US military bases soon noticed his craftsmanship and they also began commissioning him to make knives.

Later on the soldiers started or-dering swords and, as the demand for more elaborate designs grew, he started delving into books on an-cient weaponry.

When a friend took some of his swords to an exhibition in the Unit-ed States in the 1990s, De Guzman was connected with an American distributor and his international business was cemented.

A few other Philippine smithies also craft swords for export, though De Guzman believes he is the big-gest exporter.

The majority of his work now

caters for the overseas market, al-though he still makes some knives and machetes for local housewives and farmers.

De Guzman describes his over-seas clientele as medieval warfare and history buffs with a lot of dis-posable income.

“I was told these are people who dress up with Renaissance cos-tumes and bring swords to annual festivals,” he said.

More than 100 models hang

on pegs on his office wall, in-cluding copies of short Roman e m p i r e infantry s w o r d s and a massive broadsword like those used by Spartans against Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

De Guzman said he had sold more than 1,000 Excali-bur swords from the Arthu-rian legend.

He has also exported a similar number of the Sir William Wal-lace sword, popularized by the 1995 Mel Gibson Braveheart film of the 13th-century Scot

who fought English rule.The two-handed sword, with

a 73-centimeter (28-inch) long blade, weighs five kilograms (11 pounds) and sells for $600 abroad, according to De Guz-man.

While declining to talk in de-tail about how much money he had made exporting the weap-ons, De Guzman said his profes-sion had allowed him to send his four children to university.

H i s h o m e is also

clearly middle class, no small achievement in the Philippines where roughly one quarter of the country’s 100 million peo-

ple live on a dollar a day or less.De Guzman has also provided

extra employment for his rice farm-ing neighbors, who gather in his backyard in their basketball shorts and sandals to work the forge and mould metal when orders come in.

“Like me, they are also un-schooled. If there are orders we all work together, but since they are farmers, the crops get first priority and the shop orders just have to wait. My distributor understands,” he said.

However lawyers in Hollywood have occasionally been less under-standing of his profession.

“I named one of my knives ‘Rambo III’,” De Guzman said of a 46-centimeter Bowie blade. “I got a letter from the Rambo producers, telling me, ‘Don’t use our name Rambo or we will sue you.’”

Nevertheless, after renaming it ‘The Stallone’, after the movie’s star, there had been no more threat-ening letters.

De Guzman also insists his pop-ular “Braveheart” Wallace sword was not a movie rip-off, but made from specifications his distributor gave him of the original, which is stored at a museum in Scotland.

After his distributor recently broke into Germany’s sword mar-ket, De Guzman is looking to ex-plore more deeply the blood-soaked history of medieval Europe.

“I am already developing a proto-type Teutonic great sword,” he said, referring to two-handed blades used by Germanic knights in the 11th-13th Century Crusades in Muslim lands. (Agence France-Presse) n

De Guzman is the biggest exporter of Philippine-made swords. But he still makes some knives and machetes for local housewives and farmers.

He has exported more than 1,000 of the Sir William Wallace sword, popularized by the 1995 Mel Gibson Braveheart film.

De Guzman named one of his knives - similar to this - ‘Rambo III’ but renamed it ‘The Stallone’ after receiving a threatening letter from Rambo producers.

Planet Philippines (Calgary Edition) March 16-31, 2012 Issue

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Transcript of Planet Philippines (Calgary Edition) March 16-31, 2012 Issue