This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 10, April 9-15, 2006
nEWS AT A gLANCE
Bayan Muna warns of misuse of
2006 budget for Cha-cha
Bayan Muna-Southern
Mindanao Region expressed fears that the P1.06-trillion 2006 budget, now in the
Senate for approval, will be used by Malacañang allegedly for the charter change
drive.
Bayan Muna-SMR
spokesperson Jeppie Ramada criticized what he described as the “state’s
propensity to consume the national budget for its personal gains.” He also
recalled Election Commissioner Resureccion Borra’s statement that the Commission
on Elections (Comelec) has no funds to support the verification of the
signatures for the people’s initiative which would cost to as much as P1
billion and the plebiscite on charter change that would amount to about P2.6
billion.
Ramada also cited
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya who affirmed that Malacañang could use the
contingency fund and savings in the reenacted budget to finance the plebiscite
in case there is no sufficient fund for such measure.
“Arroyo is deadset
in circumventing the law and conducting massive plunder of people's funds to
rewrite the charter and perpetuate her stay in power," Ramada said.
Ramada also
refuted Macapagal-Arroyo’s statement that the 2006 budget would propel
significant economic and political growth, saying “her claim is at odds with her
anti-poor programs and prioritizations in the national budget.” Bulatlat
* * *
Media groups hit Valencia
mayor’s order to close radio station
Local media groups
in Mindanao have criticized Mayor Jose Galario of Valencia City, Bukidnon for
his moves to close the Radio
Mindanao Network (RMN)
station. They likewise
denounced the death threats hurled by Galario against Joas Dignos, anchorman of
RMN dxVM radio station in Valencia City.
In a statement,
the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said there were
witnesses who said that Galario was brandishing his firearm outside the radio
station on April 5 after Dignos refused to comply with the mayor's closure
notice. The notice was sent at 8:30 a.m. of April 5.
Anna Lyn Somoza, a
staff of RMN, told the NUJP she heard Galario shouting at Dignos, "Gawas dire
kay patyon ta ka (Come out and I will kill you)." But Somoza said the
mayor’s men got the tape recorder they placed on the wall of the toilet to
record Galario's threats. Galario told the NUJP that
"the said broadcast continued to malign the duly constituted authority and
destroys the moral and welfare of the people. He (Dignos) has been using press
freedom as his decoy for his political agenda." Meanwhile, the Alsa Media
Dos, Cagayan de Oro Press Club Inc. (COPC), and Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters ng
Pilipinas (KBP or Philippine Broadcasters Association)-CDO, slammed Galario for
allegedly trying to intimidate the media to yield to his will.
Dignos, who
bravely continued his program on air despite that day’s tension outside, said he
would file charges against Galario.
* * * Migrant groups slam plan to
use P1 B OWWA funds for OFW bank The president recently
announced that the OWWA money will be used to modernize the facilities of the
postal bank so that it can be turned into the Philippine Overseas Postal Bank (PPSB),
a “remittance-hub” for OFWs. PPSB President Rolando Macasaet said the new bank
would be operational in three to six months. “We remind Arroyo that the
OWWA is a trust fund and not a personal piggy bank wherein she can dip her
deceitful hands,” said Migrante International chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado. The same sentiment is
shared by the national organizations of OFWs and Philippine women in Canada. “The government should
instead genuinely focus on protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of
OFWs,” said Roderick Carreon, chairperson of SIKLAB (Advance and Uphold the
Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers)–Canada. Migrante said that the OWWA
fund is a trust fund comprised entirely of “a forced US$25 membership fee
collected from OFWs,” now reaching a current fund balance of about P8 billion. “It’s especially irregular
for OWWA to commit the P1 billion given that many OFWs are denied or given a
hard time accessing its limited services. This is in addition to past instances
of OWWA’s corruption and misuse of OFW funds,” Bragas-Regalado added, noting
ongoing investigations at the House of Representatives about previous incidents
of alleged OWWA fund misuse. Among the cases of OWWA
corruption that Migrante International exposed in the past are the P530 million
transferred to PhilHealth, the US$293,500 withdrawn to prepare for a massive
evacuation of OFWs from the Middle East that reportedly never happened, the P100
million transferred to the Office of the President’s National Livelihood Support
Fund, and the controversial P664 million investment for the Smokey Mountain
Project.
* * *
1 of 4 2006 college graduates
will be jobless – Ibon
Commission on
Higher Education (CHEd) data showed that there will be some 447,847 college
graduates for school year 2005-2006. But the January 2006 Labor Force Survey
shows that only 98,000 wage and salary jobs were created during the survey
period, as opposed to own-account and unpaid family work. © 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Galario also sent notice to the First Bukidnon Electric Cooperative to cut the
electricity of DXVR. Somoza, however, said the electric cooperative declined the
mayor's notice because the radio station has been paying its electric bill.
Lawyer Butch Bagabuyo, counsel of DXVR, told the NUJP that it has been
"unfortunate"
for Galario not to know that only the National Telecommunications Commission can
close down a radio station and only Congress can revoked the franchise of the
station.
"No local government can stop airing a legitimate broadcast and we will look
into the legal action against him," Bagabuyo told the NUJP. Bulatlat
Migrant groups hit President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s plan to use P1 billion of
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds for the conversion of the
Philippine Postal Savings Bank into an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) bank.
Bragas-Regalado also cited an OWWA 2004 Audit Certificate by the Commission on
Audit that states the OWWA has P129.89 million in unliquidated cash advances and
outstanding receivables of about P87 million from the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration and Government Service Insurance System – whose
recovery was “remote.” Bulatlat
Independent think-tank Ibon Foundation said that at
least one in four college students who graduate this year will be
unable to find jobs.
Ibon research head Sonny Africa said that majority of the graduates who can't
find employment here may opt to work abroad. But Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration (POEA) estimates showed there are only some 250,000 new hires of
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) annually.
This would mean
that this year's graduates will be
competing for only some 348,000 jobs, and nearly 100,000 graduates may be unable
to find work, said
Africa.
He added that
those graduates who do find work may
have to settle for jobs below their educational qualifications. He pointed out
that only some 20-30 percent of either wage and salary jobs or overseas
employment could be said to require college-level skills, hence most of the
graduates may work at jobs below their credentials, and may even earn far below
what should be expected of their level of education.
The difficulty local graduates have in finding rewarding jobs,
Africa said,
highlights not only the failure of the current administration “to meet its
self-set employment generation targets, but the bankruptcy of its economic
policies as well.” Bulatlat