Gov’t Worker Looks Forward to GMA’s Last SONA

Fred is the typical government employee whose income has remained the same for years. But he has had a change of heart since he went to Edsa in January 2001 to join a multitude of Filipinos crying for the ouster of the discredited Estrada presidency. Now he doesn’t want to see the current occupant of Malacañang beyond May 2004.

By Alexander Martin Remollino

Bulatlat.com

Fred, 26, works for an agency of the Department of Finance (DoF). He began his present job there in late 2000. He had worked for the said agency before 2000, but only for a while as a contractual employee. To colleagues, he is quite a diligent employee, ever taking care not to miss a day at work.

Fred was one of the many who trooped to Edsa in January 2001 that called for the ouster of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. He was quite enthusiastic about the succeeding president’s promise of a better life for all Filipinos.

Six months later, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivered her first State of the Nation Address (Sona). Fred was then earning P6,039 monthly.

At that time he had to take care of the daily allowance of a sister who was then studying at a big Catholic university. After graduating from college last year, his sister has not found a job.

Two years later today - the year of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s last Sona - Fred still earns P6,039 a month.

Most of his salary serves to augment the business income of a family that earns about P15-20T a month from renting out apartment units. But he has to spend at least P30,000 a month for the medicines of a mother suffering from a lingering illness. Until last May, Fred was the only one in the family with a regular job. His father started out on a job overseas last May after a few years without a job, but most of the money he sends goes to the payment of debts the family has had to incur over the years. One of his sisters was able to work briefly and has been having difficulty finding another job.

Aside from all these, Fred still has his studies to attend to. At night he attends classes at a nearby state college, where he has to pay about P1,500 per semester, or roughly P300 a month, for his tuition.

Classic case

Fred’s experience is a classic case that illustrates the conditions in which Filipino government employees find themselves under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

In a recent press conference, it was revealed that a typical government employee earns a gross salary of about P5,082 a month or about P169.40 a day. From this meager amount deductions are made to finance their benefits, if any.

Studies conducted recently by the independent think tank Ibon Foundation show that the daily cost of living for the average Filipino family was P505.81 in 2001, the year President Macapagal-Arroyo delivered her first Sona. It had gone up to P530.01 by the time she delivered her second Sona.

The latest estimates place the daily cost of living for the average Filipino family at P546. This means that the average worker or employee must now earn about P16,380 a month for her or his family to live decently.

From 2001 to 2003, the daily cost of living for the average Filipino family went up by P40.19.

Promises

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Sonas have been full of threats to wage war against poverty, a war that according to her is the cornerstone of what she calls “Bonifacio’s unfinished revolution.” In 2001 she promised jobs, education, homes, and food on every table. In 2002 she promised a “strong republic” for the weak, the poor, the jobless, the hungry, the endangered, the downtrodden, the oppressed.

These are essentially the same promises President Macapagal-Arroyo made at Edsa in January 2001. Fred was then looking forward to the day these promises would come true.

Today he is not so enthusiastic. One of his wishes is not to see the same face in Malacañang after the next election. Bulatlat.com

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