section E focus
filipino globe
editorial & community
April 2008
19
Road is clear for fiscal stimulus package
Looking back on a
The double-digit rise in both exports
and foreign direct investments (FDI)
OTHERVOICES
Both exports and FDI lend support
at the start of the year is welcome
what they say
to the continued expansion of the
country’s dollar reserves.
month that made us
news. The BSP earlier had said that
According to the National Statistics the country’s end-March gross
Office, February shipments of international reserves stood at
electronics, the country’s main US$36.5 billion.
laugh, sigh and cry
dollar-earning commodity, sustained The Manila Before the release of the latest
its growth from January. Similarly,
Times
exports and FDI data, the BSP had
sales to the US, the Philippines’ announced that overseas Filipino
P
redictable, entertaining,
maddening, tragic and sad – PINOYDIMSUM
largest market, rebounded, posting a alone does not explain export worker remittances rose by about 15
that’s how one could describe observations
double-digit increase year-on-year. competitiveness. It is a factor, but not per cent in January, defying forecasts
events in Hong Kong during the
Even as the US Federal Reserve the sole one responsible for the fate of a slowdown starting this year.
past month. First there was the
has conceded a contraction in the of sales performance abroad. The remittance data followed
predictable government report about
first quarter, the Philippine export Alongside the NSO’s export report, another central bank report that
the territory’s glowing financial
sector has held up well, despite a the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last portfolio investments, which
health, which was somewhat
overshadowed by the entertaining
Isabel T
stronger peso vis-à-vis the dollar. To week announced that FDI in January represent money placed in peso-
recall, exporters had been warning increased also by double digits from denominated financial assets such as
scandal over the leaked online Escoda
of a slowdown in shipments abroad a year ago. stocks and bonds, had registered a
videos of some local celebrities’
due to the local currency’s rapid FDI, unlike foreign portfolio net inflow in February.
sexual antics. The maddening
City” still has trouble facing up
appreciation. investments, is real money spent to As we have said earlier, the road is
delay of the long-overdue anti-
to its obligations vis-à-vis the
If anything, the facts prove the build businesses or expand existing clear for a fiscal stimulus. The recent
discrimination bill was noted by
foreigners in their midst. Despite
point that a country’s currency ones, thereby creating jobs. data support our contention
the newspapers in passing, and the
numerous petitions and protests
tragic murders of four prostituted
from concerned groups, wages for
women created almost as much of a
migrant workers remain at the pre-
sensation as the online sex videos.
Sars level, while the authorities like
The sad report about the dead
to trot out that statistic about Hong
infant found in a parcel at the
Kong paying domestics the highest
popular Pinoy meeting place,
salaries in the region. Apparently,
World-Wide Plaza, was buried in the
migrant workers and Hong Kong’s
inside pages of the local newspapers
other menials do not deserve just
(but widely publicized in the
and equal treatment.
monthly Filipino papers).
Hong Kong’s bizarre law
The official report about the
governing prostitution has been
territory’s ever-burgeoning wealth,
thrown into the spotlight, resulting
which mainly benefits high-flying
in complaints, charges and
Hongkongers, was to be expected.
proposals being bandied about by
While the fixation on the pirated
Hong Kong’s upstanding citizens
Edison Chen videos, which had
and human rights groups. The
the town buzzing for weeks on
pragmatic approach to commercial
end, practically elbowed out the
sex espoused by various societies
economic report. The naive and
around the world has apparently not
hypocritical reactions of those who
been considered by this territory’s
were shocked by, and censorious
legislators, which is strange,
about, the young people’s bedroom
knowing their ability to be hard-
The dead baby and her mysterious
mother leave us an indelible image
of the hard life led by countless
Filipinos abroad
proclivities included disappointed
nosed and practical about other
CLASS OF THE FUTURE
grumblings about the female pop
matters affecting local society.
star who had been passing herself
Until these children are out of elementary school, they will be taught in their native dialect under
The saddest event last month
off as a virginal role model. These
a proposal filed recently in Congress. If enacted, the bill would require a multi-lingual medium of
was the discovery of a dead baby
were matched only by the sniggers
instruction, using native dialects, Pilipino and English, from grades one to six.
wrapped in a parcel. A note written
over the fact that Edison, being
in Tagalog was found with the
Canadian born, was bound to have
tiny corpse, obviously written by
some pretty advanced ideas about
the mother who, various people
Ermita’s human rights report all for show
the penchant to display one’s
surmised, either killed her child
genitals to a camera.
or disposed of the infant which
Meanwhile, the “sophisticates”
may have been dead at birth. One
Apparently, the human rights
who remarked that the episode
rumor had it that the baby’s nose
situation in the Philippines is just
OTHERVOICES
of Jonas Burgos, who disappeared
merely reflected Hong Kong’s
was bruised, indicating it had been
lovely – if Executive Secretary
what they say
from a crowded mall, continues to
haunt the national conscience.) Of
membership in the globalized sexual
asphyxiated; while another theory
Eduardo Ermita is to be believed. the many pointed proposals of the
world, declared their forgiveness
claimed the mother was due to
The former general and ex- Alston report, how many have been
for the main actors involved in that return home after a long period and
congressman has set great store
graphic comedy. Everybody does it, did not want to arouse suspicions
by the applause his presentation
Philippine
accepted and put into effect? (Ermita
and other administration officials
they opined (though not everyone about having engaged in sex while
received at the Universal Periodic Daily continue to deny the balance and
records their sexual contortions abroad. This threw into focus once
Review of the UN Human Rights
Inquirer
comprehensiveness of the report,
for posterity), so what was the big again the problems confronting
Council in Geneva recently. prepared by UN Special Rapporteur deal? My favorite commentary migrant workers, highlighting
But human rights lawyer UN Human Rights Council can’t be Philip Alston). on the whole brouhaha was by the uncertainty, loneliness and
Edre Olalia said other Filipinos as gullible? The fundamental finding of Hong Kong’s scathing online disappointment which many of these
watching the briefing by Ermita Of the hundreds of political the Alston mission was that the satirist who summed it up neatly women feel in their unwelcoming
and other administration officials killings that have stained the administration’s own counter- by describing the online pictures host countries. The need to connect
were “appalled by the ebullient countryside since 2001, how many insurgency policy was responsible (which apparently numbered with others from the same culture
presentation of barefaced lies, spins have been truly solved? (The police for a climate of fear and a culture of in the hundreds) as interesting inevitably produces relationships
and out-of-this-world razzle-dazzle.” definition of a solved crime – the impunity which have killed hundreds gynecological (and, presumably, involving lesbianism, love affairs,
After all, even the King of Spain mere filing of a case – is patently of victims. Ermita did not highlight urological) studies. gangs, intrigues and, if luck
can be persuaded to hail President absurd and pathetically inadequate.) new legal remedies, such as the The non-passing of the anti- prevails, support groups.
Arroyo, during whose term political Of those who have been forcibly writ of amparo. Perhaps that was discrimination bill was noted by The dead baby and her mysterious
killings have risen to new record abducted, in politically motivated because calling attention to the crisis a few newspaper columnists. The mother leave us an indelible image
highs, as a champion of human disappearances, how many have in extrajudicial killings would have pussyfooting over this vital piece of of the hard life led by countless
rights. Who is to say members of the been returned to safety? (The case dulled his presentation. legislation proves that this “World Filipinos abroad.
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