Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Vol. VI, No. 49      Jan. 14 - 20, 2007      Quezon City, Philippines

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Commentary

Options for 2007

The year 2006 left us with so many options for this year. What will be yours?

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

The year 2006 left us with so many options for this year.  You have the option to come up with a list of New Year’s resolutions or quit doing so.  If you do come up with a list, you may opt to follow these resolutions or stay as you are.

You may opt to stay in your current job for the same salary in spite of the increases in prices and rates of basic commodities and utilities or resign and see if you are lucky enough to find another job.  If you have a relatively high-paying job, you might opt to continue working as a slave 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, or find another job with a lower salary.  If you have a car, you may drive it to work and burn your money for the high fuel cost or sweat it out with the common people cramped aboard a public jeepney.

If you are a fresh graduate and still without a job but your English is impeccable, you may apply at a call center - or stay jobless. If you know rudimentary English but cannot talk like a VJ and are computer literate, you may try your hand at medical transcription or continue trying to land a job as a call center agent.  If you are willing to spend all your savings and borrow some more money and risk working abroad, you may apply for a job at the Middle East or any other country abroad.  The higher the risk, the easier it is to land a job placement and the higher is the salary offer, that is, if you get it in full. If you are already working abroad as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), you can continue working abroad away from your family, looked down upon and alienated from a different culture or you may risk impoverishment at home. If you are unskilled and jobless, well, do not despair, when the government releases its unemployment statistics you might just be lucky enough to be counted as employed – at least in paper.

But the common Filipino is not the only one left with a lot of options. The same is true with the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The Arroyo administration may continue pushing for charter change through a people’s initiative or a constituent assembly.  It may go through the motions complete with photo-ops of gathering another set of signatures while fully explaining the amendments it proposes and hope that it is finished before May 2007 or do as it did last year and risk rejection by the Supreme Court. It may again ram down its resolution for a Senate-less constituent assembly and risk the ire not only of the senators, but more importantly, that of all denominations of the church, militant organizations, cause-oriented groups, and majority of the Filipino people or it may settle for a constitutional convention in the hope that they can still do it in time for or immediately after the May 2007 elections.  

The Arroyo government may opt to push through with the May 2007 elections and cheat massively or lose terribly and risk impeachment. It may declare martial law and risk a people power uprising cum military rebellion or risk losing power.   

The common Filipino may beg or borrow just to survive on a day-to-day basis and so does the Arroyo government.  The Arroyo government cannot determine the fate of the Filipino people. But the Filipino people can determine the fate of this government before, during, or after the May 2007 elections. Bulatlat

 

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