Toward normalization
Governor hnelda R. Manos casts her ballot at the V. Mapa High School in San Miguel, Metro Manila.
by Manuel Abad Gaerlan The results of the April 7 election for representatives to the interim Batasang Pambansa indicate that the crisis government has been on the right track all along.
The sweeping victory of Administration candidates W aS fresh an <1 Ufirrt ist ak able p roof oft he per? plcV eOO- tinued confidence in the Marcos leadership and of their full support of the President’s programs.
The election-the first to be held here since 1971 -constituted a major test of the relevance of the martial law government and of the objectives of the New Society. It was a crucial reckoning in which both came out with flying colors.
The vote eloquently reflected the people’s rec
ognition of the Administration’s achievements, de
spite econonfic difficulties and political adversities, in agricultural an^Tand reform, in public works and in
frastructure, in urban and countryside development, and in improving the lot of the common people. The vote also banked heavily on the President’s promise to quicken the pace of progress and normalization.
But the April 7 vote was significant for more than its endorsement of New Society leadership. It was important for bringing about some important firsts.
Youth in new role
One remarkable “first” in the April 7 balloting was the implementation of the new constitutional proviso allowing 18-year-oldsto vote in an election. The young
people responded enthusiastically to the challenge, bringing the force of their convictions to bear on the campaign and the voting. They also sent a sizable number of their age-group to the IBP, a development which should immediately change the complexion and eventually the thinking and outlook of the national legislative body,'whtcnTunderoiireriTawies in Tire pasr, - had been almost exclusively the private preserve of political veterans.
The new election code helped make this access easy to the youth. The code sets the minimum age qualification for IBP members at 25 years. In the sec
toral polls that will shortly be held, young people from 18 to 21 will be further served with the appor
tionment of four of the 12 sectoral seats in the IBP.
In addition, two more young representatives from the same age bracket will be chosen from the country-at- large by the sectoral councils to augment youth mem
bership in the IBP.
How much of youth’s characteristic optimism, enterprise, aggressiveness-and, perhaps, impatience -will permeate the IBP discussions or influence its decisions remains to be seen. But it should not be hard to imagine the youthful politicos injecting more verve and vision into the deliberations.
Orderly polls
The political campaign had its share of infractions of the peace: violence, bombings, threats and intimida
tion, etc. Many cases are now being investigated and
some have reached the proper tribunals for adjudica
tion. These are seemingly inevitable parts of every Phil
ippine election. Still, the problems that attended this election pale into insignificance when compared to the widespread acts of violence, fraud and mass terrorism which were part of most elections in the past.
Resounding rebuff
Save for scattered incidents, the political campaign itself was generally restrained and high-level. In certain reported cases, politicians who indulged in muckrak
ing or black propaganda found themselves at the em
barrassing end of boos and hoots from the public
proof of the increasing sense of maturity and sobriety of our electorate. One easily observable fact about the election is that a great number of those candidates who indulged in smearing tactics and character as
sassination during the campaign found themselves resoundingly rebuffed in the polls.
With the foolproof checks on election spending incorporated in the new election code, excesses in this regard were similarly reduced to a minimum. Old voters can easily recall past elections when “rolling the dough” became a popular expression to describe candidates or their backers unashamedly handing out money to voters before or during an election.
Optional voting didn’t turn out to be as big a problem as some earlier feared, than! s to the energetic efforts or mass mediarand ctvYc grt . ;cr . arriv’d out intensive information drives on the subject. That most voters perfectly understood what optional vot
ing was all about and took recourse to it was evident from the smooth manner the voting was generally conducted throughout the country.
Forward step
All in all the April 7 election represented a significant step forward. It showed that “clean and peaceful polls” may no longer be a dream, that the electoral machinery can be made sufficiently effective and fool
proof to ensure the inviolability of the vote. As earlier indicated, the April 7 poll also considerably broad
ened the base of our democracy by making ample room for the country’s youths to participate in the voting as well as contend for elective positions. For the young, this means the beginning of an enlarged and more responsible role in decision-making in the government.
Finally, the April 7 poll opened the way to the next vital phase of our new political restructuring:
the establishment of the interim Batasang Pambansa, or national legislative body-the first big step to normalization.
News Briefs
Government retirees’ pay up
Retired government workers may now receive a month
ly pension of up to 90 percent of their average monthly salary while in active service. This means that a retired government employee with an average monthly salary of P500 who has rendered 35 years of service is entitled to-a monthly pension of P450, or 21 percent over the P371.52 earlier granted under the old GS1S charter. Under the new law. the same re
tiree is also entitled to a five-year lump sum benefit of P23.478, or about seven percent more than the amount under the old law.
To hike potable water supply
A 10-year program aimed at providing potable water to some 31 million Filipinos in both Manila and the provinces was set in motion recently when President
Marcos directed NEDA Secretary-General Gerardo P.
Sicat to sign a loan agreement with the USAID for the purpose. The loan covers the planning and installa
tion of two kinds of barangay cooperative water sys
tems. One plan calls for tapping communal water points to serve 50 households each; another involves the setting up of public faucets good for six house
holds. The whole plan envisions potable water sufficien
cy for at least 90 percent of the population by the end of this decade.
Year of developmental advertising President Marcos issued a proclamation declaring 1978 as the Year of Developmental Advertising and Com
munication. Coincidentally, the Philippines will be the site this year of the 11 th Asian Advertising Congress, which will be held from November 15 to 18. DPI Sec
retary Francisco S. Tatad has been designated chair
man of the Congress’ government advisory board. A proposal to set up an Asian Federation of Advertising Associations(AFAA), sponsored by the Philippines, will be taken up at the conference.
Turtles disappearing
Turtle Island in Sulu may soon run out of turtles- this, in effect, was the warning sounded by wildlife re
searchers in Los Baflos, Laguna, as they urged imme
diate measures to protect and preserve tire country’s turtle population. They said rampant collection of turtle eggs and unrestricted hunting of the reptile, which is exported mainly to Japan, have depleted the country’s supply of turtles to a dangerous point, threatening extinction of the species.
Teachers’ basic pay up to P600
In an informal meeting with some 2,500 Metro Manila public school teachers attending a seminar at the Philippine International Convention Center, the Presi
dent revealed a plan to bring up the minimum basic salary of all public school teachers in the country to P600, instead of P500 as originally intended. At present the minimum pay of public elementary school teachers is P410. Only about 10 percent receive P600 monthly, which is currently the highest rate for class
room teachers.
To develop better Filipino athletes
by Marcos D. Agayo The Department of Youth and Sports Development (DYSD) has designed a new mass-based physical fitness and sports development program. The program aims to make Filipinos more aware of the necessity of and techniques for proper physical development and help them appreciate better the value of sports, thereby producing a healthier citizenry -and a crop of athletes who have a fighting chance in international competition.
DYSD’s nationwide campaign, using print and broadcast media, seminars, workshops and demonstra
tions, will carry the message that physical fitness depends on proper nutrition and systematic exercise.
The average Filipino’s nutritional intake is crit
ically low, only 1,672 calories per day instead of the recommended 2,200. The DYSD campaign will try to make Filipinos aware of more nutritious foods-and erase the impression that what is better always costs more. Brown sugar, for example is cheaper and more nutritious than white, kangkong than rice, dilis than pork.
The DYSD campaign will also try to persuade everyone to engage in systematic exercise or calisthen
ics, since few Filipinos, even manual laborers, exer
cise all parts of their body.
As part of the campaign, community physical fitness centers will be established. These will be run by 1.500 specially trained members of the Kabataang Barangay and the Integrated National Police.
More and bigger sports competitions will also be held. While there are many sports leagues and clubsand regular provincial and municipal sports tour
naments, there is no broad base for selecting national athletes. At present, national athletes are chosen from college standouts and others who happen to have the qpoortuniiy and rjjources-and not necessarily the re
quisite talent to competeTnlnfefnaiiofiarmeetsr To resolve this problem, the DYSD, in cooperation with the Department of Education, the Kabataang Barangay, the Department of Local Government and Community Development, the Department of Na
Fl • * ' . *
DYSD Secretary Gualberto Duavit (left) with Peso Chairman Nereo C. .Indolong.
tional Defense and various athletic clubs, is develop
ing a series of competitions, which will start with iniex-barangay, interclub and intercolor meets, and move on to district, regional and finally national meets. In this way an athletic elite, culled from talents all over the country, shall emerge.
To ensure a supply of good, reasonably priced equipment for the ten “priority” sports-volleyball, track and field, soccer, sipa, softball, weightlifting, swimming, boxing, arnis and hockey-the DYSD hope^
to get the help of the Association of Sporting Goods Manufacturer^ (ASGM). Eventually, it is hoped the KB 'wiU ha^dle pTTrchasing; distribution and allocation of
sporting goods for the government’s sports program in consultation with the ASGM.
The problem of sports complexes or arenas has also been considered. Some time back the DYSD sent
questionnaires about sports facilities to provincial governors all over the country. Unfortunately, only a few of the survey sheets were answered and sent back. The limited available feedback indicates that most sports facilities are either inadequate or obsolete.
The DYSD has therefore initiated the rehabilita
tion or construction of sports centers in strategic regional, provincial and municipal areas. This begins with the renovation and restoration of the Rizal Me
morial Sports Complex, which shall be a National Sports Complex.
The government also hopes to be able to use such facilities as cockpits (normally used only-onSun-^
days and holidays) and nonprofit sports clubs (which might be exempted from paying taxes on food and beverage sales if they allow their facilities to be used for government-sponsored sports events).
Traditional sports
Amis de mano is a martial sport in which two players wield hardwood sticks against one another. The term, according to Donn F. Draeger, an authority on Asian fighting arts, derives from the Spanish words ames, which referred to the decorative trapping or “harness”
worn by moro-moro actors and which eventually be
came corrupted as arnis, and de mano, which means
“of the hand.” The entire phrase thus means “harness of the hand.”
Amis may have developed from a combat system known as kali, in which long- and short-bladed wea
pons were used. (It may also have derived from a na
tive combat system using a short pointed hardwood
stick, the tabak, which Pigafetta saw among the na
tives of Mactan.) The kali system of combat was forced underground by the Spanish, surfacing only during moro-moro stage plays in which mock com
bat with biaded weapons constituted the climax.
Draeger points to three forms of amis being prac
ticed today. The original amis style-which the Span
iards observed-had some similarities to European fenc
ing. It used a long wooden sword and a short wooden dagger and was known as espada y daga. It is the most popular style today, though the “sword” and “dagger”
have been replaced by wooden sticks known as muton.
Another style of amis, popular among the Panga»
sinenses, the llocanos and the Viajeros of Macabebe and Batangas, used a single long muton and is known as solo baston, or “single stick.”
The third style is, says Draeger, the deadliest and most difficult to master because of the concentration
Arnis: martial sport with calisthenu value.
and dexterity needed to manipulate two equally long sticks. This style is called sinawali because the intri
cate movements of the two muton are like the bam
boo-rush sawali pattern used for weaving, walling and matting. The sticks used average about 30 inches in length and about one inch in diameter.
To become adept in amis, one must develop skill in striking and parrying with a dagger, in using the leg or leg-hip as a fulcrum over which to break an op
ponent’s balance, and in using the sticks or a free hand to disarm a foe.
Though modem amis is valued more for its calis- thenic than its combat value, it still can be useful in a tight situation.
Kun-tao is basically a defensive system. It stresses cir
cular movements and employs the open hand, the fist and the feet in parrying and striking. The term derives from the Hokkien Chinese words kun, meaning
“fist,” and tao, meaning “way.”
Kun-tao first flourished in Sulu, where it was prob
ably introduced by Islamic settlers and traders from Sumatra and the neighboring islands of Indonesia and Malaysia, who had themselves learned it from Chinese settlers and traders. As practiced today, kun-too is similar to Japanese and Korean combat systems.
Dumog is a native wrestling system which developed in the northern Philippines. By holding the belt or en
circling the waist of an opponent, one player tries to knock the other off balance and throw him to the ground. One player must land squarely on his back for the other to be declared the winner.
Sipa bears a certain resemblance to volleyball, except that the ball is made of woven rattan and it is kicked rather than handbatted over the net separating two opposing teams. A ball served or returned from one side of the net must be returned before or after the ball bounces once on the court. A game ends when fifteen points are scored by one team.
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Some 360 kilometers south of Metro Manila, in the provinces<;i Camarines Sur and Albay, is a 312,000-hcctare river basin area wire re a mammoth govern
ment development project is under way to make the Bicol Region one of the country’s most productive and progres
sive areas. The Bicol River Basin Devel
opment Project (BRBDP) is also designed eventually to transform the region’s dominantly agricultural economy into a more balanced agro-industrial structure.
Seventy-eight percent of Bicol’s population live in rural areas and are de
pendent chiefly on agriculture. But the area lies directly in the path of destruc
tive seasonal typhoons and it has never been able Jo reach the peak of its pro
duction potential. Also, cultivation has long been extended into marginal lands where productivity is low. Little won
der Bicol has remained one of the least developed regions in the country.
But final relief is seen with the full implementation of the BRBDP, a compre
hensive program integrating the develop
ment of agriculture, natural resources, infrastructure, social services and other related activities in an underdeveloped area. The first project of its kind to im
plement the new thrust in development policy, the BRBDP will try to develop a lagging and depressed region without un
duly hindering the growth of the more developed regions, much less slacken the pace of national development.
The BRBDP was started in 1972.
Its objective is not only to increase pro-
River basin project to uplift Bicol area
llalancing a lopsided agricultural economy.
duction but to minimize the destructive effects of the storms and floods that periodically buffet the area. By bringing about a self-sustaining increase in the in
come level of the people through greater agricultural productivity, the plan hopes to bring about a more equitabfe distribu
tion of wealth and increased employment opportunities.
The integrated development plan hopes to bring about:
□ A rise in farm income as the land re
form program proceeds and owner-culti
vators take advantage of facilities ex
tended to them, especially if they form compact farming groups;
□ Irrigation of some 80,000 hectares of riceland and extension of flood control facilities to protect over 42,000 hectares of agricultural crops that have been sub
ject to destructive floods in the past;
□ An increase in the number of farm-
to-inarket roads on the basis of the inte
grated infrastructure program of one kilometer of road for each square kilo
meter of arable land;
□ Rural electrification to power irriga
tion projects as well as provide low-cost electricity to the rural areas (The geo
thermal project of Tiwi in Albay is be
ing linked to the river basin program as one source of electric power.);
□ Increased livestock development through access to new pasture lands de
veloped along the river basin, credit facilitics and o ther incen tives;
□ Expanded fishery projects as bogs, lagoons and watered wastelands are developed into freshwater fishfarms.
The BRBDP functions under the su
pervision and direction of the Cabinet Coordinating Committee on Integrated Rural Development Projects (OCC4RDP), part of the National Economic Develop- Authority (NEDA). A presidential decree issued on April 28, 1976, modified the organizational structure of the BRBDP and gave it broader powers and responsi
bilities, including the authority to se
cure developmental loans from local and foreign sources. About P773 million is required to complete the six-year devel
opment program. Two-thirds of this amount is set aside for the short-term re
quirements of farmers. The United States Agency for International Develop
ment (USAID) and other foreign financ
ing agencies are extending loans for the project which is expected to be com
pleted by 1982.
A petrochemical plant in the Philippines?
I
by Rosalinda G. Roxas Is the Philippines likely to have a petro
chemical complex in the near future?
Two years ago the answer would have been an unqualified “Yes.” Today, how
ever, the country’s economic forecast
ers are hedging their bets.
Petrochemicals once seemed a sure thing. Used in such diverse industries as agriculture and food processing, con
struction and car manufacturing, tex
tiles and records, there seemed to be no limit to their uses or market potential.
Well aware of the catalytic effect the petrochemical industry had had on the economic development of Taiwan and South Korea, the Philippine Board of Investments made petrochemicals a priority investment area and promised special tax incentives to petrochemical investors. The government also set in motion plans to build a large petrochem
ical complex in the Indescor area of Limay, Bataan.
The complex was to consist of a
“mother” naphtha cracker plant and six
“daughter" petrochemical plants. The mother plant would be owned and oper
ated by the Philippine National Oil Cor
poration, or PNOC. It would get raw ma
terials from the Bataan Refining Com
pany, a government-controlled petro
leum refinery, and supply semiproc
essed raw materials to the daughter plants.
These units would in turn produce high- and low-density polyethylene, poly
propylene, polyvinyl chloride and other polymers needed for plastic products.
The daughter plants might be owned by either Filipinos or foreigners, de
pending on who could supply the large foreign capital outlay needed to get the project going. (Whether the smaller plants were in Filipino or foreign hands, their operations would be screened by
the Asian Petrochemical Development Corporation, a joint venture of Hooker Chemicals and the Herdis Management and Investment Corporation.) Estimated costs for the entire complex now stand at just over USS730 million, though a higher than expected rate of inflation could push the bill past the US$1-billion mark by the time the complex would , become fully operational in 1985.
The problem now is to determine whether the expected benefits are worth the projected costs. Though the domes
tic market would absorb the larger por
tion of the complex’s output, a signif
icant volume would have to be exported, if only to partly recoup the foreign ex
change spent to set up the complex. But in the past two years, world demand for plastics has unexpectedly declined. This maybe an aberration, and demand may once again skyrocket to the growth levels of old. But the recent decline could also herald a move away from plastics, and no investor-public or private-wants to sink money into a no-growth, no-profit proposition.
Predicting economic trends is a haz
ardous business, but government plan
ners have little choice. They must decide soon if they will proceed with or shelve the project. And if they choose to go ahead, they must decide if it should be on the scale originally envisioned. A deci
sion to decrease to 200,000 metric tons the mother plant’s initial planned capaci
ty of 225,000 metric tons would be a wise (and dollar-saving) move only if de
mand remains fairly steady or grows mar
ginally. If there should be a sudden boom, however, gearing up to meet it will be more expensive later than now. A wrong decision could waste millions of pesos.
Will the Philippines soon have a petrochemical complex? Right now, it’s anyone’s guess.
Industry spurs and sustains breakthroughs.
Develop Davao as South ’s growth center
ing point is estimated to occur in the middle nineties.
From 1975'to 1983, the population of the region is expected to grow at an average rate of4.3 percent, with the labor force increasing at a faster rate of 4.9 percent a year. Some 273,000 new job opportunities will be created in all sec
tors of the regional economy during the same period, with roughly 43 percent of the employment absorbed in agricul
ture, 16 percent in industry and 41 per
cent in the rest of the economy.
In view of the region’s vast food and forest resources, agricultural develop
ment will revolve principally around in
tensified food production to meet the national requirements and further ex
ploitation of forest resources. This will require the full development of the Cota- bato Agusan River Basin and provision of infrastructure necessary for marketing the region’s surplus. The fishery sector will focus on the expansion of inland and brackish water fishponds. Other areas of concern are reforestation, watershed conservation and wildlife protection.
The development of Davao City as the primary growth center of Southern Minda
nao is the ultimate goal of the Region XTs ten-year development program, which commences this year. Hand in hand with the development of Davao City, the re
gion’s secondary service centers will be provided with needed facilities, such as infrastructure, utilities and social serv- f ices. These secondary centers are Digos, Davao del Sur; Ragum, Davao del Norte;
Davao Oriental, General Santos together with Koronadal;Mati, South Cotabato;
and Tandag, Surigao del Sur.
As the region’s primary growth cen
ter, Davao City will be the catalyst for the economic growth of the whole area.
It will be the raw-material demand cen
ter of the region and will have within its boundaries most of the region’s me
dium and large-scale industries.
The long-term objective of the pro
gram for Southern Mindanao is to devel
op the manufacturing sector. Agricul
ture, however, will continue to be the dominant sector of the region, at least in the next five years. The economic tum-
I
Romulo: ‘ The tension has eased... ’
Sec. Romulo(center) presides over a Group of 77 meeting.
by Virgie Paculan
One of the most senior of Southeast Asia’s senior states
men. Foreign Affairs Secretary Carlos P. Romulo talked to The Republic about the country's changing posture.
• a ainvdUand
organization. But lately it has become a beehive of activity. We know that ASEAN is benefitting us within the region, but how does our membership help us achieve greater reciprocity with developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America?
Secretary Romulo: ASEAN is now off the ground.
Soon we shall begin to feel throughout this region the concrete effects of agreements that we have been silently but decisively forming among ourselves to in
tensify cooperation in economic, cultural and other spheres. In turn aSean has become an excellent vehicle for us to relate with other regional organizations such as the EEC and COMECON, and with such world
wide organizations as OPEC.
The Philippines, as you know, has not yet broken out of the economic mold in which we found ourselves at the end of the colonial age; we still have a lopsided economic relationship with much of the developed world. We hope to move toward greater reciprocity, and we are counting on ASEAN to help in this.
What advantages have we derived from our expanded relations with other ASEAN countries?
ASEAN represents a big step forward in our foreign policy. As a regional organization, it has proved to be viable and useful for the group and economically profitable for us. At the Bali summit we signed two treaTIes=TTieTfeaty ot Ecoriomic Cooperation and the Treaty of Amity and Concord. This was the first time in the 1,000-year history of the region that a link was forged between the five nations. That link has proved beneficial to all of us.
Philippine foreign policy has undergone many changes recently. We have become far more flexible than be
fore. What brought about the changes?
Foreign policy should be framed in consonance with domestic policy, but it is only in the New Society that we have been able to do so. At one time our legis
lature did not allow the President to exercise the powers that he had, did not allow him to be the archi
tect of our foreign policy. We had reactionaries in Congress who opposed every move for opening rela
tions with Communist countries, who believed that our only relationship should be with the United States.
Under the New Society the President has been able to open windows toward the whole world. Our windows are no longer shut to half the world as they were before. We are now free to deal with countries all over the globe.
You have said that foreign policy is merely the instru
ment by which we seek our national interest. What benefits have we achieved from the shifts you’ve described?
Diversifying our fqreign relations has, for one thing, enabled us to diversify our import sources and export markets. For example, at one time we were badly in need of an oil rig but couldn’t get one anywhere. Then, on a trip to Romania, we were able to negotiate for that badly needed rig. When our normal suppliers could no longer sell us sufficient quantities of fertilizers, we were able to buy from Yugoslavia. The benefits apply to exports too. Just look at where we are selling sugar now-Czechoslovakia, Russia, China. We are no longer so dependent on the American market.
Would you say then that the new shift in our foreign policy is directed principally to the enhancement of our trade relations and that diplomacy is only secon
dary to this goal?
In international relations, friendships survive only when they conform to national interests. And national interests change. At one time our national interest was in maintaining parity with the United States. Later, we found that this was not to our overall interests.
When parity ended, we were glad. We were able to trade with other countries. We must always remem
ber that foreign policy must be keyed to domestic policy and national security.
In terms of national security, when we adopted an independent foreign policy, did we take into considera
tion the probable effects of such a stand on the secur
ity of our country as a whole?
Beyond any doubt, our new stand has advanced our stature and our interests, materially, morally and spiritually. Our trade has expanded, particularly with the Socialist and Communist states, but in no way has our security been jeopardized; if anything, much of the tension has eased. We have even found it possi
ble to disband the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Security threats are not seen as proceeding from external sources as much as from internal, sub
version. Our security rests primarily on our claim of having mounted a true revolution of our own among our people, a revolution of poverty against wealth, of the cry of the masses against the vested interests within our society.
Would you make an assessment of the outstanding achievements of our new foreign policy?
In our international relations, we have assiduously fos
tered relations of friendship and cooperation with our neighbors in ASEAN. |n an unprecedentted ges
ture of regional solidarity, in the face of all domestic criticism, our President has openly renounced Philip
pine sovereignty over Sabah. We have laid the foun
dation for a working economic partnership in the re
gion, and have won the cooperation of Japan, the United States and other countries of the world.
RP inUN Outer Space Committee
The Philippines was one of ten new members appoint
ed early in February by the United Nations to its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The nine other members are the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Benin, Cameroon, Niger, Iraq, Colombia and Ecuador.
The appointment of the ten new members was in line with a General Assembly resolution last Decem
ber to increase the membership of this vital commit
tee from 37 to 47.
Philippine membership in the committee was assured earlier during a meeting of three interested Asian states-Bangladesh, Iraq and the Philippines- following the decision of UN General Assembly Pres
ident Lazar Mosjov of Yugoslavia to apportion only two additional seats for Asia, instead of three as earlier indicated. At this meeting, Bangladesh decided to withdraw in favor of the Philippines and Iraq.
The United Nations took official cognizance of the importance of the prospect of the conquest of outer space and the need for ensuring its peaceful use to benefit all mankind when it established a Perma
nent Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in 1959, with 24 members. This was later expanded to 37.
These are the United States, Australia, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, West Germany, East Germany, the Soviet Qnion, Czech
oslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Mon
golia, Albania, Chad, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,Sudan, Lebanon, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela.
The Committee’s subcommittee on scientific and technical matters is meeting shortly in New York to discuss an agenda that includes the following sub
stantive items: remote sensing activities, a UN pro
gram on space application, and the question of the possible convening of a UN conference on outer space.
Remote sensing involves studies of the eartn from space platforms. The legal subcommittee of the Outer Space Committee is studying the draft prin
ciples on the subject toward possible conclusion of an agreement to ensure that such activities are carried out for the benefit and in the interest of all countries.
The projected UN conference on outer space is ex
pected by some observers to offer a venue for Canada to request consideration of the case involving the Rus
sian Cosmos satellite.
The Philippine mission in New York has pro
posed the appointment of Ambassador Yango to head the Philippine delegation to the scientific and technical subcommittee meeting, slated to be held this month.
They work for their keep.
Welfare is well-being
by Evangeline N. Carillo
“It is time,” said President Marcos recently, “that we understood exactly what welfare is. The common misconception is that it is merely a more respectable word for charity, since it is ‘dispensed’ by the state.
The truth is that welfare is well-being, maybe more but certainly not less. And the promotion of the well
being of members and citizens is the reason for the existence of society and the state.”
It is also the raison d’etre of the Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), the govern
ment’s principal social welfare agency. In recent years DSSD has shed its image as a “dole-out” agency and emerged as a vital instrument of development.
To achieve its objective of “developing fulfilled human beings in an atmosphere of social equity, economic prosperity and people-participation in na
tion-building,” the DSSD has reassessed and realigned its various programs to more speedily and realistic
ally meet the needs of some 10 million economically- deprived Filipinos.
Programs for the underprivileged DSSD’s services and development programs have con
siderably increased in scope since 1972. Its major programs may now be classified into six groups:
(1) self-employment assistance, (2) practical skills development and job placement, (3) day care and sup
plemental feedings, (4) emergency assistance, (5) fam
ily planning motivation and population awareness, and (6) special social services.
Under its Self-employment Assistance Program (SEAP), the DSSD provides capital to assist disadvan
taged persons to undertake income-producing projects and develop positive work habits and attitudes.
SEAP has won backing from some of the coun
try’s premier banking and lending institutions. One project with the Development Bank of the Philippines involves DBP’s granting “second-step” financial assis
tance to individuals who have been successful with the financial assistance initially given to them under SEAP. DSSD recommends successful SEAP clients for bigger “second-step” loans ranging from Pl ,000 to P3,000 at a minimum interest rate of nine percent
payable in five years. To date 340 families, or a total of 2,040 individuals, have been served through this tie-up involving a total amount of P903.328.
Late last year, the DSSD and 16 of the country’s biggest lending institutions also agreed on ways of providing more liberal social credit schemes (minimum interest and collateral) for the poor to expand income
producing projects. Poor fishermen in economically depressed fishing areas have been the largest recipients of this kind of assistance.
Vocational training for all ages
Another DSSD program offers nonforrrial vocational training courses designed to give out-of-school youths, unemployed family heads and other needy adults or disabled persons practical skills for econo
ic productivity in self-employment, open employ
ment or employment in sheltered workshops.
DSSD also sponsors day-care centers for the benefit of poor mothers. At Such centers, the chil
dren receive supplemental feedings. (Supplemental feeding is also extended to malnourished children below seven years in their own homes.)
The late See. V.Tablante pushed self-help projects.
During disasters the DSSD takes a leading role.
It extends emergency relief in the form of food, clothing and other necessities. The total concept of emergency assistance includes rescue, evacua
tion and relief, financial assistance and counselling, housing assistance and food-for-work and food incentive projects.
The Department sponsors family planning briefings and conducts clinics that provide couples with informational, motivational and referral serv
ices to help them become responsible parents and to adopt family planning as a way of life. The training is also extended to out-of-school or needy youths to make them aware of the effects of rapid population growth and its implications for national development.
Special social services are extended to the or
phaned, the neglected, the abandoned, the disabled, etc. These services include family life education and counselling, adoption, guardianship, foster family care, residential care, diagnostic and after-care serv
ices, rehabilitation, drug information and prevention, nutrition and even court-related services to youth
ful offenders.
As of the end of last year, some 1.8 million per
sons had benefitted from the various social programs of the DSSD, including 545,544 needy family heads^
680,842 disadvantaged children, 555,171 needy out- of-school youths and 90,640 disabled persons and special groups.
Baranganic approach
To get to the core of ascertaining the actual needs of deprived persons, the DSSD has evolved a new Plan
ning and Management Information System (PMIS) which asks the participation of the people concerned in the consideration of their particular problems or needs. This has been called the baranganic approach, to indicate the barangay-level nature of tire dialogue.
Since its adoption, the system has had promising results - like the more specific identification and categorization of public needs in certain defined areas.
This knowledge has helped greatly in enabling deci
sion-makers to suit available funds and resources to the needs described and the priorities indicated.
Self-help, not self-pity
Of all the agencies of government, the Department of Social Services and Development most eloquently reflects the Administration's total concern for the needy, the disadvantaged and the disabled in this country. On this spread are pictured some of the varied services that the Department dispenses-through self-help rather than self-pity, through rehabilitation rather than charity. As President Marcos has pointed out, the DSSD’s mission is “to rebuild lives rather than per
petuate conditions of misery through palliatives.”
The new DSSD building (above), housing the central headquarters of this sprawling Department, stands on the comer of Legarda and San Rafael streets, Sampa- loc, at the same site where the old Social Welfare Ad
ministration and the much older Associated Charities, the original social welfare office, had been located.
Among the manifold services of the DSSD is giving assistance to poor or destitute families to enable them to engage in income-producing projects, like gardening (top left), and teaching special skills to out-of-school youths or the unemployed (right).
by Rosalinda G. Roxas One often used to read in the papers about the sad plight of Filipino contract workers overseas. Low pay. Substandard living conditions. The absence of bene
fits. Even being stranded in a foreign country without money or a job. Usual
ly these workers were victims of illegal recruiters peddling false hopes to thou
sands of over-eager applicants.
Illegal recruiters were rampant in past years, despite an intensive drive waged by the Department of Labor (DOL) against them. (Under the labor code they are liable for stiff penalties if found guilty.) However, with the creation of the Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB). illegal recruitment in the Philippines has dropped considerably.
The OEDB’s main function is to un
dertake a systematic program for over
seas employment of Filipino workers (other than seamen) and to protect their rights to equitable employment.
There are two kinds of overseas workers: the contract worker, who works only for specified periods and then re
turns to his home country ; and the mi
grant worker, who seeks permanent resi
dence and work status in a foreign coun
try. OEDB prefers the temporary form of migration, with the intention of see
ing the future reabsorption of workers in the national economy. Through its systematic operations, the OEDB annual
ly provides at least 30,000 new jobs for Filipinos.
To apply for overseas employment, the applicant must register with one of the 48 Public Employment Offices (PEO) located all over the country. These PEO’s are not governed by the OEDB but are part of the Bureau of Employment Serv
ice (BES). an agency under DOL. - — When OEDB receives a job order for manpower, it informs the BES which in turn signals the PEO’s to forward applica
tions that fit the hiring requirements. Or the OEDB may conduct open registra
tion by itself if certain types of workers or skills are not available at PEO man
power banks. Applicants are pre-screened
Good jobs h around thev
A j|
L._
OEDB: protector of overseas workers.
by the OEDB. Applicants who pass OEDB’s scrutiny are then referred to the foreign employer or his repre
sentative for final selection.
Accepted applicants undergo medi
cal examinations. Those medically unfit are automatically disqualified. For suc
cessful applicants, employment con
tracts are prepared at the OEDB, faci
litated by the Board’s legal staff.
The OEDB does not issue employ
ment contracts clearances unless two conditions are met: first, their contracts must be attested by Philippine Labor Attaches or appropriate Philippine Em
bassy or Consulate officials in the place of employment; second, these contracts should contain basic Philippine labor and social legislative provisions or prac
tices, including but not limited to: free transportation.from the Philippines to the worksite and back again at the ter
mination of employment; regular work hours; overtime pay; free emergency med
ical and dental services and facilities;
workmen’s compensation coverage; and, whenever applicable, war hazards pro
tection; free transportation of remains and personal properties in case of death,
Poor litigant workers now have a chance to win over influential employers.
Death and disability claims, separa
tion pay, overtime pay and holiday pay claims are being won by dismissed or dis
gruntled workers like Luzviminda Sayo, Ramon Resuello and Manuel Lariosa.
Luzviminda Sayo, widow, was awarded Pl7,500 in a claim for death and contractual benefits of her deceased seaman husband. Ramon Resuello con
tested his dismissal from a bank and col
lected P13,526 in back wages. Manuel Lariosa, shipping company worker, sought payment of claims for overtime pay, holiday pay and night differential.
He received Pl,999 in settlement.
All three were indigent litigants who could not afford full-fledged law
yers. They turned to a group of bright young law students who gave them free legal services.
These law students belong to the Department of Labor’s Free Legal As
sistance Office (FLAO), set up by Sec
retary Blas F. Ople to aid poor worker litigants who have legitimate claims against their employers but who cannot afford to hire a lawyer in the settlement of their claims. All law seniors and top- notchers in their respective classes, members of FLAO have demonstrated their talent in paper work and practice.
They come from schools like Far Eastern University, Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College, Manuel L. Quezon University, the University of Manila and
ET’
Helping workers with legal battles is FI.AC
Legal aid fo
the University of the East. Their clien
tele comes all the way from Agusan del Sur in Mindanao, Sorsogon in the Bicol Region and Tarlac in Central Luzon.
FLAO provides not only legal coun
sel but also other such services as xerox copies of evidentiary documents, free notarization and transportation service (in certain cases), preparation of posi
tion papers, affidavits, motions for exe
cution of judgment, petitions for certifi
cation of election, certification of past
iere-and world
Protection Package
A protection system shielding workers from harassment in a foreign environment is the Board's first concern. OEDB con
ducts research on labor laws, and social practices in manpower-importing countries.
These studies contribute to sharpened negotiating strength and assure the OEDB that overseas workers are protected by both Philippines and foreign labor laws.
In compliance with Presidential Letter of Instruction No. 537 creating the DOL Welfare Training Fund for overseas work
ers. a Welfare Services Unit (WSU) was created to provide welfare and social ser
vices to workers placed through the Board.
Tire program mapped out insurance cover
age, social work assistance, re-entry prep
aration of workers, cultural services and salary remittance services.
Welfare services include life and travel insurance policies. Life insurance for each placed worker is P5,000, and the contract is for a one-year period from the date of employment. The travel plan insures him against any risk during the first seven days after departure and provides a coverage of P50,000 in case of death and P5,000 for injuries sustained in an accident.
As further protection for workers the OEDB investigates the employers’ financial status. Employers are asked to submit a copy of their license to do business, clear
ance from the host government for the recruitment of Filipinos, financial state
ments for the last three years and duly certified articles of incorporation.
In its three years of operation. OEDB has serviced 1,247 foreign employers whose manpower requirements ranged from one domestic helper to hundreds of construc
tion workers. The concentration of these employers is in the Middle East with 57 percent. Asia is second with 20 percent and Europe third with 6.5 percent
New markets are opening for expatriate labor in the Middle East and Africa. Their manpower are so staggering that no single country can endeavor to fill. Aggregate spending schedules in Iran and Saudi Arabia alone call for S243 billion through 1980 for the infrastructure and service projects.
5- ’S&Tw • jgft, -
4
or, if transport of the remains is not pos
sible, proper disposition in accordance with arrangements with the next-of-kin, or in their absence, the appropriate Phil
ippine embassy or consulate official;
guaranteed minimum wage prevailing at the site of employment or in the Philip
pines, whichever is higher; and just causes for the termination of contract or serv
ice of the worker. Whenever beneficial to the Filipino worker, provisions of labor laws in force at the site of employment are incorporated into the contract.
Before they leave, contract workers undergo an OEDB orientation program to prepare them for their overseas assign
ments. Workers are briefed on the history and culture of the host country, dollar remittance procedures, behavior guide
lines, taxation laws, travel tips, etc. OEDB also helps with travel documents, such as police clearance, NB1 clearance, NISA clearance and passport. In addition, OEDB handles ticketing, booking and other travel arrangements.
“We are sometimes accused of being slow,” (referring to all the above require
ments) “but we are just being sure,” said.
Gloria Ramos, an OEDB department head.
SfficS#
Secretary and Undersecretary of Labor, Office of Civil Relations, Social Security System, Civil Service Commission and the Citizens Legal Assistance Office have inundated the FLAO, indicating the tremendous public response.
FLAO staffers earn P300 a month and academic credits for their Trial Prac
tice or Practice Court subjects. They have the first crack at some top labor ad
ministration posts if they opt to stay with DOL after hurdling the bar.
The recruitment of these law stud
O s main iob
ir workers
employment, appeals/motion for recon
sideration, memoranda, requests for fi
nancial assistance, powers of attorney, quit claims and releases and other allied pleadings.
The FLAO is among the new agen
cies today which demonstrate the gov
ernment’s concern for the poor. The dynamism and enthusiasm of its staff, headed by Atty. Mila Rosario Taruc, have been strongly felt. Referrals to and from the Office of the President, the
ents (their deans certify them as the cream of their classes) is organized by the DOL in coordination with the De
partment of Education and Culture.
In an interview during the DOL’s Oras ng Manggagawa weekly radio pro
gram. FLAO Supervisor Taruc said the creation of the FLAO “is the best evi
dence of the Department of Labor’s concern for the causes of indigent work
ers under the New Society.”
Last year, the FLAO people worked on 2,226 cases arising from violation of labor standards laws, layoffs, all sorts of unpaid compensations, death benefits and nonfulfillment of labor agreements.
Four hundred disputes were settled, enabling many workers to return to their jobs with back wages. Some workers secured the lifting of their suspensions and financial assistance.
DOL’s I LAO gives meaning to one of the goals of government-the establish
ment of a truly “compassionate society.”
Managing time
The executive who doesn't know how he spends his time almost certainly doesn’t spend it wellIt is rare to find a manager in business, industry or government who is not busy.
(The only thing rarer is finding one who will admit to it.) For one reason or another, we have all come to believe that a good manager is a noticeably busy one. An executive who is caught reading the newspaper in his office (even if it is the business supplement) is likely to be seen as (or feel) guilty even if he is effi
cient in his job.
No matter what our individual per
ceptions are on the use of executive time, it is clear that some managers are able to accomplish more than their col
leagues. The popular saying is that if you want to get something done you must ask someone who already has a lot to do.
Busy people know how to use (ime.
But do managers? Not always, if we be
lieve recent studies of how managers use-or misuse-their time.
Studying managers
One of the earliest studies of man
agerial management of time was by the Swedish professor Sune Carlson. In 1951 Carlson spent four weeks examining the work of the managing directors of nine Swedish firms. He asked the execu
tives to keep a log of all of their meet
ings and activities and their secretaries to take notes on the number and time du
ration of all phone calls.
Studying his results Carlson was struck by the fact that the managers were rarely alone. When they were, it was usually too short a time for deep thought.
Carlson concluded that his executives were too ruled by their appointment books. They were not autonomous man
agers; their work-and use of time-was determined by other people, with a con
sequent loss of efficiency. Carlson said that before his study he had thought of a managing director as being like the conductor of an orchestra; afterwards he began to think of him as a puppet with other people pulling the strings.
The next major study was done in 1952 by the British sociologist Tom Bums. Using the Carlson diary method for observing 76 managers in six differ
ent companies, Burns’ five-week study suggested that there was a close relation
ship between changes in the external environment, or the firm’s programs for expansion, and the amount of time top management spent in discussions. In gen
eral, the faster the change the more time the managers spent talking together.
Burns also noted a significant amount of lateral communication, par
ticularly among firms most involved in change and between those in the lower ranks of management, thus challenging the traditional view of management as a working hierarchy.
Further light was thrown on how managers spend their time by the British researchers Home and Lupton in 1966.
Looking at 36 managers in 10 companies employing from 170 to 140,000 peo
ple, they confirmed the earlier findings of Carlson and Bums that there appear
ed to be no major differences in the be
haviour of managers in companies of widely different size and technology
The researchers concluded: “Man
agers talk most of the time, and mostly face-to-face. They seem no; to be over
whelmed with paper work or formal meetings. They swap information, ad
vice and instructions, mos? thiough in
formal face-to-face contacts ,n their of
fices. Middle managers do not seem to require remarkable powers to analyze, weigh alternatives and decide. Rather,
to facilitate.
Further studies on the manager’s use of time were carried out in Britain by Rosemary Stewart and in Canada by Henry Mintzberg. Using respectively the diary method and direct observation of executives at work, they addressed themselves to two key questions. The first was whether the manager was doing the right thing; the second, whether he was doing it efficiently.
Keeping track of time Rosemary Stewart discovered that most managers, when asked, were not really certain how they spent their time. She therefore requested them to keep a dia
ry in which they would record any work
day activity that took five minutes or more.
The results led her to classify man
agers into five different categories:
□ Those who travelled a great deal and made contacts mostly with customers and officials from other companies or public institutions (The Emissaries).
□ Those who spent relatively more time reading, writing and dictating reports
interpersonal Description Identifiable activities
Figurehead Symbolic head; obliged to perform a number of routinelegalor social duties.
Ceremony, status re quests, solicitations.
Leader Responsiblefor the mo tivationand activation of subordinates: also for staffing, training and associated duties.
Virtually all managerial activities involving sub ordinates.
Liaison Maintains self-develop ed network of outside contacts and informers who provide favors and information.
Acknowledgements of mail; external board work; other outside activities.
Informational Description Identifiable activities
Monitor Seeks and receives a widevarietyof special information to develop athorough knowledge of the organization;
emerges as'thenerve cehter of internal and external information.
Handles all mail and contactsconcerned pri marily with receiving information.
Disseminator Transmits information received fromoutsiders or from other sub
ordinates to members of the organization, some information fac
tual, some involving interpretation.
Forwarding mail into theorganization for in formational purposes, verbal contactsinvolv
ing informationflow to subordinates.
Spokesman Transmits information tooutsiderson the or
ganization’s plans,pol icies, actions, results etc.; an expert onthe organization’sindustry.
Board meetings; han dlingmail and contacts involving the trans
mission of information to outsiders.
Decisional Description Identifiable activities
Entrepreneur Searches organization and its environmentfor opportunities and ini tiates “improvement projects” to bring about changes; super
visesdesign of certain projects.
Strategy and review ses sionsinvolving initia tion or improvement of projects.
Disturbance handler
Responsible forcorrec tive actionwhen the or
ganization faces im
portant unexpecteddis turbances.
Strategy andreviewin volving disturbances and
Resource allocator
Responsible for theal
location of organiza tional resourcesof all kinds - in effect the making orapproval of all significant decisions.
Scheduling; requests for authorization; anyacti vity involvingbudgeting and the programming ofsubordinates’work.
Negotiator Responsible for repre
senting theorganization at major negotiations.
Negotiation.
and memoranda (The Writers).
□ Those who spent their time with col
leagues at the same organizational level and undertook diverse activities and func
tions (The Discussers).
□ Those who made shorter, fleeting contacts than managers in other groups and were called upon to cope with more crises and problems needing more imme
diate attention and solutions (The Trouble-shooters).
□ Those who spent most time in group discussions and committee meetings and whose contact was almost invariably inter
nal and tending to deal with questions largely related to personnel (The Com
mittee-men).
Henry Mintzberg’s work in measur
ing managerial behaviour, though radi
cally different from that of Rosemary Stewart, produced similar results. He selected five senior managers in different organizations and observed them for one week. He noted that 659 pieces of mail reached their desks; 231 pieces
were sent out; and 368 distinct verbal contacts were made. Analysis revealed ten managerial roles. (See below.)
All of the studies described thus far have been done in the West. 1 felt it
might be instructive to apply some of the same research techniques to Asian man
agers to discover how culture-bound-or culture-free-are managerial methods of handling time.
My research was done among 733 practising managers in 19 distinct jobs in Hongkong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand and Indo
nesia. The national samples ranged in size from 59 to 136.
By analysing information obtained from each manager through a detailed questionnaire, I obtained profiles of managerial jobs against which indivi
duals may compare themselves, and which at the same time indicate the ways in which managers in different countries perceive their work.
Overall, I found that managerial time is broken up in terms of the follow
ing activities:
Talking to other people 32.80%
Involvement in paperwork 39.77%
Reading 11.81%
Traveling 7.34%
Other activities 7.91%
The most prominent talkers were general managers (39.81%) and market
ingmanagers (39.46%). Those most in
volved in paperwork were finance man
agers (53.82%) and civil servants (46.11%). These perceptions represent behaviour demands which managers see as inherent in their jobs if they are to do them properly.
In terms of the allocation of time, .we have seen th? . most managerial act ty tends to polarise around the pheno
mena of talking to people and handling paperwork. Based on the reported data averages, the national groupings of man
agers indicated job pressures thus:
Time spent talking to people: Philip
pines, 41.56%; Singapore 39.62%; Japan 36.64%; Hongkong 36.62%.
Involvement in paperwork: Thailand, 48.22%; Indonesia, 45.62%; Hongkong, 41.71%; Malaysia, 39.64%.
Time spent talking to others can mean a preoccupation with a wide varie
ty of people-subordinates, the boss, colleagues, others in the organization, customers, suppliers, etc. It is interesting to note, therefore, that among those national groupings claiming pressure to talk to people, managers from the Philip
pines, Singapore and Hongkong stressed that most talking was to subordinates.
By and large those managers who said much of their time was spent talking to people also claimed high pressure in two other dimensions of work-thc need to establish relationships and uncer
tainty attached to their work.
The science of defining and predict
ing what managers may do is too much in its infancy to regard this research as more than a pointer for future effort.
It may be true that there are significant variations cross-culturally in the ways in which managers approach what are otherwise similar tasks. The implications of this for multinational companies are obvious.
Every manager should periodically audit time spent. The question of the appropriate use of time can only be an
swered in individual cases by an exam
ination of this record against the declared objectives and modus opera nd i of an organization with as much knowledge as possible about the cultural setting of the job.
-Excerpted fromTerry Casey, "UseofTime"
in Asian Business andIndustry, November, 1977.
