Upside & Downside Jobs in the Philippines

By: Bob Boyer

 

The Philippine economy has definitely improved over the past few years. We even see the expression “New Asian Tiger” applied, comparing the Philippines with the economic successes of the likes of South Korea and Singapore. Still, widespread and extreme poverty exists, a fact that came across to me dramatically in two recent articles that I want to share.

I hasten to add that I applaud the improved economy and those who have moved it ahead, the business and governmental leaders—and, of course, the enterprising Filipino workers. Further, I emphasize my favorite line from my book about my times in the Philippines: I am not a sociologist or anthropologist. I am an observer (from Sundays in Manila).

Upside Article: “The Philippines has become the call-center capital of the world.”

This article, which appeared initially in the Los Angeles Times, was picked up by my local paper, the Green Bay Press Gazette on Sunday, February 22. I was surprised because the Philippines does not get a lot of attention in Northeastern Wisconsin, so I was pleased to see it. It has probably been at least a year now that the Philippines has passed India as the call-center capital of the world. The accent you now likely hear sounds more American than Anglo-Indian. Of course, that’s because the Philippines was a U.S. colony when English became an established language there. Now when I call about my cable bill, I personally find it much easier now to understand the speaker’s English, not that that helps change the amount I have to pay.

The article illustrates the opportunities now available to Filipino calltakers. It points out that a young woman, Joahnna Horca, earns about $700 a month as a call-taker. That salary is more than “many general physicians earn in the Philippines.” And it is way more than she would make as a social worker, the area in which she received her college degree. Bottom line for the country: $25 billion in revenue, accounting for about 10 percent” of the economy. Still I suspect that Ms. Horca might rather be a social worker, if she could afford it. The next article shows a dire need for social workers.

Downside Article: “Chronic poverty is fueling child labor in the Philippines.”

The second article appeared in a source that is new to me, ucanews.com. The web site promotes itself as “Asia’s most trusted independent Catholic news source.” I found this article just about the same time that I read the one above. It had appeared originally on February 2, 2015 and was picked up more recently by the on-line news source, CathNews.com. I have greatly condensed the article, which certainly merits a fuller reading.

As the title suggests, this article reminds us of the huge economic gulf between groups in the Philippines, between someone like Ms. Horca and one of the second article’s featured individuals, Geraldine Aboy. Ms. Aboy is “a 14-yr-old child laborer from the Manobo Pulangiyen tribe,” who works “on a sugarcane plantation in Mindanao.” To be more specific, Ms. Aboy works on a sugar plantation in the Province of Bukidnon in north central Mindanao. That is quite a distance from the sometimes more dangerous far-western part of Mindanao where an uneasy truce currently exists between the government in Manila and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Politically stable and a province that should attract lots of tourists, to judge by the “More Fun in the Philippines” on-line pictures, Bukidnon nonetheless suffers “chronic poverty.” Children, such as Ms. Aboy, leave their villages and go to camps away from home while they help harvest the cane. They work literally from dawn to dusk for about $2.70 per day. Schooling is, of course, no longer a prospect. Ms. Aboy had to leave school after 6th grade to work at the sugarcane plantations. She would have loved to stay in school and eventually become a teacher, but her family needs her to work. Her situation and that of many others in the area remains a familiar formula for chronic poverty.

Contact Bob Boyer: Robert.boyer@snc.edu;

www.anamericaninmanila.com.