Planet Philippines (Calgary Edition)

APRIL 2011Calgary Edition PLANET PHILIPPINES1

APRIL 2011 Calgary EditionPLANET PHILIPPINES2

®Registered trademarks of Alberta Treasury Branches.

WE DELIVER MORTGAGE OPTIONS RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR

Manny BalaoingMobile Mortgage SpecialistPh: 403-968-2261Cell: [email protected]

Get up to 5% Cash Back towards your down payment!

Offering You Your Complete Mortgage Solution

Lower than bank posted rates Cashback for down payment

Open work Visa & immigrants

Debt consolidation

Self employed stated income

Contact: Alfred Gabriel Mortgage Specialist

Phone: (403) 461-9409 Fax: (866) 406-3565 Email: [email protected]

www.yourmtgplace.com



BOUT 34,000 people dead instantly and 24,000 dead or dying in the rubble. About 110,000 injured and needing im-mediate treat-

ment. Five hundred fires rag-ing simultaneously.

Metro Manila faces these and several other horrific scenes should a 7.2-magnitude earth-quake hit the country’s most pop-ulous urban area, according to a report released by a multinational firm doing intelligence work for clients on business and security in the Philippines.

Pacific Strategies and Assess-ments (PSA) said in its report on Metro Manila’s quake vulnerabil-ity that while quakes were normal occurrences in the metropolis, the effects of a 7.2-magnitude tremor were likely to be made more ter-rifying by a lack of preparedness and failure to enforce zoning laws and building standards.

The report, “Metro Manila Earthquake Vulnerability Assess-ment,” was released in August 2010 shortly after a massive earth-quake killed thousands in Haiti.

Pete Troilo, executive director of PSA, said that while the report had not been updated in the wake of the 8.9-magnitude quake that devastated northeastern Japan, “it still holds.”

“It just gained added rele-vance,” Troilo said.

The report pieced together data from a study prepared by the Japan International Coopera-

IS METRO MANILA PREPARED FOR THE BIG ONE?

A multinational intelligence and security

firm warns that “while earthquakes are a global and natural phenomena

that can hit any city without warning, there

are both openly declared and unspoken reasons

why Metro Manila … is particularly vulnerable.”

BY TONY BERGONIA tion Agency (JICA) and the Met-ropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and results of PSA’s own study on the impact of a massive earthquake on busi-nesses and industries in Metro Manila.

Apocalyptic scenariosShould a 7.2-magnitude quake

slam Metro Manila, the PSA re-port listed these apocalyptic sce-narios aside from the unimagina-ble number of fatalities that such a tremor would bring:

• At least 117,000 homes would either collapse or suffer heavy damage, rendering 1.2 mil-lion people homeless.

At least 117,000 homes – particularly those made of

light materials - would either collapse or suffer heavy

damage, rendering 1.2 million people homeless.

Modern high-rise buildings that conform to government building

codes can withstand earthquakes up to

magnitude 7.

Officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways say they have yet to inspect the structures of the mass transit systems, Light Rail

Transit and Metro Rail Transit.


APRIL 2011 Calgary EditionPLANET PHILIPPINES6• A fourth of public facilities—

hospitals, schools, fire houses and police stations —would suffer damage.

• Damage to water reservoirs and purification plants would im-mediately cut 4,000 water supply points.

• At least 30 kilometers of electric cables cut, removing the supply of power instantly across the metropolis.

• At least 100 km of telecom-munications cables cut, suspend-ing services “for several weeks if not longer.”

• Closure of airports, damage to major ports and cargo handling infrastructure.

• Closure of roads and damage to nine bridges and a government not functioning because of dam-age to its offices and facilities.

“While earthquakes are a glob-al and natural phenomena that can hit any city without warning, there are both openly declared and unspoken reasons why Metro Manila … is particularly vulner-able,” the PSA report said.

Poor building standards“Despite international assis-

tance programs that have gained considerable momentum over the course of the last several years, unreliable infrastructure system, poor building standards due to corruption in the construction and inspection process, informal

settlements … in hazardous areas and a lack of government resourc-es and coordination … are just some of the factors that plague the country’s disaster prepared-ness,” the PSA report said.

It said that should a 7.2-mag-nitude quake hit Metro Manila, the post-quake scenario “would more closely resemble Port au-Prince (capital of Haiti).”

“If this is true, one need only remember that six months after the Haitian earthquake, rubble and collapsed buildings still dominate the city landscape and most roads are still impassable,” the report said.

Based on PSA’s own findings, a staggering level of death and de-struction was not remote in Metro Manila following a massive quake because of utter disregard for rules on building and construction.

The report doubted whether builders had taken into consider-

ation that Metro Manila’s soil was mostly made of “quaternary alluvi-um [alluvial deposits of sand, grav-el, silt and clay], which is generally not suitable for construction of big infrastructure and buildings.”

Despite rapid urbanization and the decay that it brings, “the nation-al government has failed to adopt a comprehensive land use plan for Metro Manila,” the report said.

Weak enforcement“The lack of coordination and

checks and balance mechanisms between local and national agen-cies have likewise weakened the enforcement of building standards with many residential and com-mercial buildings built on hazard-prone areas, using substandard construction materials,” it said.

Quoting the JICA-MMDA 2004 report, which was kept from the public until 2008, the PSA report said that in case of a 7.2-magni-tude quake, Metro Manila “could be separated into four regions … due to the collapse of buildings, destruction of elevated highways and bridges, impassable roads and fire.”

“The Pasig River exacerbates the potential of … separation in the event of an earthquake,” it said. “For example, earthquake analysts contend that if the Gua-dalupe Bridge across the Pasig River and along EDSA collapses or suffers significant structural damage, the Ortigas Center area would be virtually shut off from the areas south, including Makati City,” it said.

To ensure continuity of business activity, the DPWH has also checked bridges in the metropolis, and identified nine that need reconstruction and 11 that require retrofitting.

The report said casualties were likely to be caused “first and most directly by building collapse and spreading fires.”

“Inadequate fire-fighting ca-pabilities and the probable loss of water in many areas of the city would diminish many of the efforts to combat shanty town fires,” it said.

Even without a massive earth-quake, the report said “approxi-mately 70 percent of fire hydrants in Metro Manila reportedly have no water.”

Lack of open spacesOperations to evacuate thou-

sands would be hampered by the sheer lack of open spaces in the metropolis, according to the report, because open spaces like parks, schools, sports arenas and burial grounds “now comprise less than 1 percent of total land areas of cities in Metro Manila.”

“With a daytime population of more than 14 million, existing rescue and relief facilities of local governments across Metro Manila will simply be overwhelmed,” the report said.

“Lack of hospitals, fire trucks and logistics are likely to hinder rescue and relief operations. The number of medical personnel, hos-pital facilities and ambulances … is likewise insufficient to treat thou-sands of earthquake victims,” it said. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) n

A fourth of public facilities—hospitals, schools, fire houses and police stations —would suffer damage.



FINDING A SPOT IN

THE MIDDLE Households are

classified as middle class if their total

annual income ranges from P251,283 to

P2,045,280. Their top five expenditures are

food, housing and repairs, transportation

and communication, fuel, light and water,

and education.

BY KC ABALOS

Stretching the peso is the guiding principle of every middle-class shopper.

A middle-class family usually owns a house and lot in suburban subdivisions.

OW DO you know that you are middle class? Many of us who “have to” and “can” work for a living usually cat-egorize ourselves as middle class. This loosely means that we are not privileged

enough to live a life of leisure by just kicking back and going on vacations in the US or Europe. However, we do enjoy the frequent visits to the mall and the occasional trips to Boracay—after feverishly waiting for the latest promo from a budget airline.

But how does one classify as a member of the bourgeoisie? The experts do not real-ly agree on one ultimate definition of what it means to be in the middle of the social stratum. More often than not, the concept of the middle-class can only be distinguished via statistics—that is, based on the annual income of a certain household. So, what data we can acquire to clarify the question is only the statistical middle-class.

In the 2007 Family Income and Expen-ditures Survey (FIES) of the National Sta-tistics Office, households that can be con-

sidered middle class have a total annual in-come ranging from P251,283 to P2,045,280. And based on the survey also, the National Statistical Coordination Board presented a paper which showed that the top five expenditures of those in the cluster are the following: food, housing and repairs, transportation and communication, fuel, light and water, and education.

Who’s in the middle?Given these priorities, we tried to come

up with a general list of middle-class… mannerisms and idiosyncrasies, if you will, that loosely characterize this bunch. Check it and see if you belong to this class of middletons!

• Finding the need to separate “needs” from “wants”. If you’re middle class, chances are you probably pick up some-thing from the mall—a hard bound book, a pair of heels, a ceramic collectible, a rare miniature toy—and you classify it under “nice to have”. Then you put it back care-fully on the shelf.

• When you look at car exhibits you oooh at the luxury cars but you ask for the terms of fuel-economy, compact cars—the tiny models of Suzuki, Kia, and Hyundai. Then you take the train home or if you’re tired, you take a cab and watch the meter carefully.

Free wine, piso fares• You drink wine and nibble at expen-

sive cheese. . . when it is free.




Flying means choosing the budget airlines over the established carriers for their discounted fares.

• You choose which movies you will watch at the cinema and which you will wait for on cable or released on Quiapo DVD. Oh, and you call mainstream Pinoy films baduy with the exception of John Lloyd’s. Indie Pi-noy films are “quality films.”

• You lurk on budget airline websites and wait for discounts or, the biggest jack-pot of all, piso fares.

• Your idea of a good education is studying in a private Catholic school even though you have no idea who the saint is.

• To get that must-have gadget, you get another job or you pinch and save like cra-zy. Or you join a contest on Facebook.

Splurging on ‘salebration’• You splurge on new clothes or things

that you want only when it’s your birth-day, Christmas, or there’s a sale.

• Your idea of sport is basketball, box-ing, billiards. Football and golf are for the rich kids.

• You acknowledge that you can be jo-logs sometimes but you are NOT a jejemon.

• You have an active application for a job overseas. One of your siblings is studying to

be a nurse or a seaman and at least one mem-ber of the family works for a call center.

• You go to mass but you don’t care if the church prohibits artificial birth control methods. What’s important for you is to control the number of mouths that you’ll have to feed. Priests won’t provide for your

family anyway.

What’s middle class?Writing for Newsbreak online magazine,

Marites Danguilan-Vitug has her own take on what it means to be middle class in the Philippines:

• Buying appliances on a zero-interest installment plan.

• Preference for pre-owned (a nicer sounding word for second-hand) cars.

• Having basic gadgets: iPad and Kin-dle have to wait.

• Joining long queues in the bank while

Your idea of a good education is studying in a private Catholic school even though you have no idea who the saint is.



THE MIDDLE class is shrinking. A National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) study presented at the

10th National Convention on Statistics late last year (2007) revealed that from 1997 to 2003, the population share of the Filipino middle class shrank in the country’s total population. The population share of the upper class likewise fell during the same period, resulting in a larger low income class.

The Shrinking Filipino Middle Class

Entitled “Trends and Characteristics of the Middle Class in the Philippines: Is it Expanding or Shrinking?”, the study used data from the 1997, 2000 and 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Surveys (FIES) conducted by the Na-tional Statistics Office to come up with the results. It found that “as of 2003, less than 1 in 100 families belong to the high income class; about 20 are middle income and 80 are low income. And in a span of 6 years from 1997 to 2003, close to 4 families for every 100 middle income families have been lost to the low income category.”

Dr. Romulo Virola, NSCB Executive Di-rector, noted in his blog that the prelimi-nary results of the 2006 FIES “seem to indicate a continuation of the pattern.”

“For a country to be truly and sus-tainably prosperous there must be a broad-based middle class …that has the knowledge, the skills and the resources to foster economic growth and help gener-ate employment for the poor. But so far, the poverty reduction programs we have crafted have focused mainly on being ‘pro-poor’, ‘antipoverty’, helping the ‘poor-est provinces’, etc.

We seem to have completely ignored the needs of and the strategic importance of building and expanding the middle class of Philippine society,” he pointed out.

But how do we know who comprises the middle class?

One approach in identifying the middle class is through income, as done by the study.

The authors conducted cluster analysis on data from the 1997 FIES to create an a priori grouping of families based on income. This grouping was then used to classify families into the low, middle or high income clusters. The lower and upper income limits of the middle class were then determined based on resulting clusters.

The proposed middle class’ minimum and maximum income were extrapolated to 2000 and 2003 using two series of the Consumer Price Index – one with base year 1994 and another 2000.

Using income limits for the three years, the middle income class is identified.

To identify the total income determi-nants of the middle income class, the re-searchers conducted multiple regression analysis on the families classified as mid-dle class. The dependent variable was the log of total household income with a pre-identified list of independent variables, which include educational attainment of household head, occupation, and materi-als of the housing unit, among others.

They likewise considered the indica-tors from the 5-point system of the Market

and Opinion Research Society of the Philip-pines where households are classified into five groups based on income using a set of indicators.

Studies done by other researchers on the income classes were likewise used.

The authors also identified the middle class based on socioeconomic character-istics.

Dr. Virola and his co-authors found that the middle-income class comprise of families who, in 2007, have a total annual income ranging from P251,283 to P2,045,280. Middle-income families also have houses built of strong materi-als, own a house and lot, a refrigerator and a radio.

They noted that while the middle class shrank only a bit between 1997 and 2000, there was a minimum 2 percentage point de-crease in the middle class’ population share between 2000 and 2003. The share of mid-dle class families in 2003 was 22.7 percent, down from 23.0 percent in 1997. This further shrank to 19.9 percent in 2003.

The study also found that educational attainment plays a big role in family income. If a household head has a postgraduate degree, the annual family income is ex-pected to increase at least 17.3 percent in 2000. A college degree, on the other hand, meant a lower but nonetheless significant increase of 10.5 percent in the same year. The authors said that “this highlights the importance of higher education in the so-cioeconomic status of an individual”.

In terms of occupation, if the house-hold head worked as a government official, manager, supervisor or professional, an-nual income would increase 31.6 percent in 2003. A job in trade and industry, on the other hand, meant a 3.6 percent decrease in income in 2000.

Mean income of families with a mem-ber who is an overseas Filipino worker is higher by 93 percent in 2003. Their in-come rose PhP33,986 or 9.5 percent from 2000 to 2003.

The authors added that as expected, families in urban areas had income higher by about 6 percent compared to their rural counterparts in 1997 and 2000.

The NSCB chief called on policymakers to address this seemingly unnoticed but alarming trend. He warned in his blog that “we can no longer ignore the seemingly systematic shrinking of the group of profes-sionals and skilled workers who can spell the difference between us being mired in poverty or crossing over to the league of First-World countries by 2020.”

The warning signs are clear. Hopefully, the country’s policymakers will take no-tice. (National Economic and Development Authority, January 2008) n

envying the short queues in the gold and platinum lanes.

• Traveling on Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, and other budget airlines. And coach – in regular airlines – and only to neighboring countries.

• Studying abroad on scholarship.• Leaving for jobs overseas.• Living in suburbs far away from the

city, usually with “executive” appended to the subdivision’s name.

• Living in a 40-square-meter condo-minium unit.

• Shopping at Booksale.

View from the middleMaintaining a healthy middle-class

statistic is essential for the economy of

a country, especially a developing na-tion like ours. Experts have said time and again that the only way that we can keep afloat is if the gap between the wealthy and the poor recedes to a manageable level and for it to remain in that manage-able level.

Being in the middle is not so bad. Sure, leisure items will have to wait. And there are times when suburban moms will have to skimp on Christmas gifts and the teens will have to save their allowances if they want to go on dates. But in the end, being in the middle provides us with the best view on the story of this so-called reality, enough to keep us determined in toiling for a living but offering glimpses of the good life as a reachable goal. n

One should splurge on new clothes or wanted things only during birthdays, Christmas, or when there’s a sale.



NOW WHAT?AFTER COLLEGE,

Soon after graduation, the graduates will be confronted by the stark reality: landing a job in their field of studies, or even finding any job at all.

BY PEPPER MARCELO

T’S GRADUA-TION time again. In a country where one’s worth is of-ten measured by his educational at-tainment, finishing college is one of the highly anticipated milestones. Never

mind that the graduate is at the bottom of the class or that he came from one of those diploma mills. What matters most to many Filipino par-ents is that are able to send their child though college; whether the graduate gets to practice what he studied or lands a job afterward is an-other matter.

But the celebratory mood is short-lived. Soon after, reality sets in: many of the graduates will have a hard time finding decent jobs, much more jobs that are suited to their studies. Thus we see marketing graduates answering phones and filing records, or mass communi-cation majors taking on con-tractual jobs hawking credit cards in malls. The luckier ones end up as call center agents and bank tellers, jobs that require only three to six months training in developed countries.

Clearly there is a mismatch be-tween the types of graduates our schools produce and the kinds of skills that the labor market needs. As a result, years of studies and the concomitant cost of college education are wasted. Labor sta-tistics show that roughly half a million graduate are unable to get work in their chosen field each year. Despite numerous vacan-cies, local and overseas employ-ers often complain about the lack of employable college graduates. Phil-job.net, the official job search site of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), shows that some 125,000 local and over-seas job vacancies are still open and have yet to be filled by quali-fied applicants.

A recent study by the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statis-tics (BLES) of DOLE shows that 1.052 million, or 39.1 percent of the unemployed, are college graduates and undergraduates. “The large proportion (50.6 per-cent) of the recorded 2.6 million unemployed Filipinos are young workers aged 15 to 24 and are educated with a college diplo-ma or are undergraduates,” the study says.

Unemployable graduatesIn the nursing profession, for

example, there are 80,000 nurs-ing board passers each year, but there are only a handful of job openings, according to the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) and the Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates. Statistics on the total of unem-ployed nurses are estimated to number upwards of 150,000. Many of them have become call center agents due to the diffi-culty of finding nursing jobs at home and abroad.

Graduates of business admin-istration, hotel and restaurant management, and information technology are in the same boat. Statistics show that only three out of every 100 new college gradu-ates are hired yearly because of their failure to pass competitive qualifying exams. Thus many of the graduates – or at least those with a workable grasp of the Eng-lish language - end up as call cen-ter agents or bank tellers.

“Even if they’re graduates, they might not have the qualifica-tions, competency and experience that the job requires,” says Crisel-da Sy, Director of the Bureau of Local Employment. “A major concern is that we’re not educa-tionally at par with the standards of the industry.”

Statistics on the total of unemployed nurses are estimated to number upwards of 150,000.

Clearly there is a mismatch between the types of graduates our schools produce and the kinds of skills that the labor market needs. As a result, years of studies and the concomitant cost of college education are wasted.


SOLUTIONON PAGE 33

Moratorium on popular coursesTo address the oversupply of

graduates in certain courses, the Commission on Higher Education (CED) has imposed a moratorium on the opening of new programs effective this year. The following undergraduate and graduate pro-grams were declared suspended for an indefinite period: Nursing, Business Administration, Teacher Education, Hotel Restaurant and Management and Information Technology.

According to CHED, the top five major disciplines with the most number of graduates were Business Administration and Management related Programs (114,000), Education and Teacher Training (96,000), Medical and Allied Professionals (87,000), Engineering and Technology (63,000), and Information Tech-nology (49,000).

The moratorium is the gov-ernment’s response to the pro-liferation of specific programs, which if left unabated would further lead to the worsening of the quality of our graduates. The mushrooming of certain courses, according to one study, has resulted in the weakening of the Business Administration and Teacher Education programs, as well as the decline in the passing rate in the Licensure Examina-tion for nurses.

There are thousands of jobless college graduates and yet there are over 100,000 local and overseas job vacancies because of lack of qualified applicants.

Improving educationCHED is focused on ensur-

ing that Philippine educational institutions are developing a na-tional qualifications framework to improve tertiary education. It is pushing for schools to attain proper accreditation. Although CHED prescribes schools to at-tain the minimum requirements, it nonetheless encourages and evaluates institutions to go above the minimum targets so as to make their standards comparable to foreign standards.

CHED is working in collabora-tion with a technical panel of ex-perts from the academe, as well as business and industry leaders, via their Policy Standards and Guide-lines (PSGS). The multisectoral panel shall formulate academic de-velopment plans and make recom-

mendations for specific disciplines. “That’s our mechanism,” says

Atty. Julito Vitriolo, CHED Ex-ecutive Director. “Before you of-fer a program you have to comply with established policies and stan-dards, which are formulated by the panel. Aside from that, there is a public hearing process, where we invite everyone, including students and parents, to attend the forum. After that, we finalize these standards for schools to fol-

low.”CHED has

designated Ag-riculture, Min-ing Science, A e r o n a u t i c s , Geology and Software Engi-neering as un-dersubscribed

collegiate programs for which there is a big demand for quali-fied graduates.

Jobs of the futureIn 2010, DOLE held a forum

with business executives and “captains of industry” to discuss future business trends and their corresponding requirements for the next ten years (2010-11). Some of the critical concerns raised in the forum included the need to improve the analytical and com-munication proficiencies of stu-dents and their corresponding information technology skills, as well as honing the managerial skills of college graduates.

Through consultation and research, the government and the private sector identified 12 Key Employment Generators

(KEG): Agribusiness, Cyberser-vice, Health and Wellness, Hotel Restaurant and Tourism, Min-ing, Construction, Banking and Finance, Manufacturing, Owner-ship Dwellings and Real Estate, Transport and Logistics, Whole-sale and Retail Trade, and Over-seas Employment.

In Agribusiness, for example, some of the specific in-demand occupational titles include Ani-mal Husbandry, Agricultural Economist, Aqua-culturist, Coco-nut Farmer, Entomologist, Horti-culturist, Plant Mechanic, Veteri-narian and Pathologist.

Career guidance needed“The problem is even if we do

that, it largely remains a choice of the students,” says Vitriolo. “For example, there are very few takers in agricultural education, because they don’t find it as something as attractive [as nursing]. There are few people now taking that, but we need it, because we’re an agri-cultural country.”

DOLE recommends that there needs to be an intensified focus on information dissemination regarding hard-to-fill and in-de-mand occupations, including col-lege degree courses with an over-supply of skills, so that students are able to make informed deci-sions about their career choices.

“The business community should alert the educational sector about its labor requirements, and figure out how to attract enrollees in those areas,” says Sy. “That’s where career guidance and orien-tation come in. A student should be aware of what is going on in the labor market and make an informed career decision, so that after graduation, they will know where they should go.” n

A recent study shows that 1.052 million, or 39.1 percent of the unemployed, are college graduates and undergraduates.



Documents

Planet Philippines (Calgary Edition)