The Dragons of Unemployment

JOB ORDER Out of stock?

Just weeks after the Naliyagan Festival, where an estimated budget of P10 million had been appropriated and eventually splurged for the pride and prestige of the Caraga Region, the Provincial Government surprisingly issued a memo stipulating that effective as of July 1 certain employees of the Capitol are advised not to report to their respective offices anymore, citing that the provincial office is allegedly running short of budget, and that cost cutting measures had to be made for it to sustain the operation, even if it means trimming the number of employees.

Almost 50% of casual workers and nondescript ones, including those who have job orders, were suddenly out of work. The announcement (regardless of the precedence of lay offs happening in the Capitol over the years) still came as a surprise to the many since it has yet to reach a full account of its midyear spending and that the festival seemed to have been a success, not until the memo was distributed a day after its scheduled implementation, signifying that the party was over, and that some of its workforce, who were so vital during the Naliyagan festivities, had to contend with the perennial problem of unemployment for the rest of the year.

Now it comes down to this. And somehow it ends in a whimper. We need not remind ourselves that any retrenchments emanating from the government is not as shocking at all as with a private institution facing a potential shutdown. Besides, unemployment in this country, as with corruption at times, is part and parcel of our culture. And the numbers keep coming by the volumes. It is probably the one problem that the government has managed to get away with and yet somehow finds a platform in it come election time. And as if we have never been immune to its overtures, what happened a week ago in the Provincial Capitol was emblematic of the way local politics has done to the people of Caraga, it simply doesn’t live up to its hyperbole of “Agusanon, ikaw ang numero uno.”

Nevertheless, the Provincial Government has done its fair share of justifying whatever rhetoric they would like to call as far as services are concerned. We see them conducting annual services to the people of Caraga through medical missions, scholarship programs, information drives as well as providing immediate help in times of outbreaks and disasters. In fact, certain schools in the region, through the office of Governor Eddiebong Plaza, has recently enjoyed an assistance from the governor himself by providing their respective libraries with the necessary upgrade for it to be competitive at least with the need of the times. But out of the euphoria, nonetheless, comes its diminishing returns. The initial intention, of course, was to provide enough resources for its employees to further enhance that time-honored code of providing quality services to the people that they have decided to increase the remuneration of their employees at the start of the year, only to face a disconnection notice in the middle of it.

And so any news of a possible retrenchment can only be considered inevitable. At some point, however, some decisions should be measured with a co-terminus attitude. Whether the increase in salary and the retrenchment afterwards was politically-motivated, whoever designed the plan should be held accountable at least for those evicted ones for whatever anguish and injury it may cause them. Intentional or not, this retrenchment sounds more like an exercise in politicking than in trying to sustain its economic potential. Now, if the labor situation outside of the country couldn’t keep up with their own politics on labor issues, with a host of overseas contract workers losing their jobs abroad and coming home empty-handed, what does that make of those who have been given notices in our very own backyard?

Chances are, streets in Caraga will tighten up as more and more retrenched souls find themselves kicking cans on a lonely tenement. Desperation will reach its overbearing zenith through rage and robberies. Money will be treated like gold again, high grade, but most of the time non-existent. Breasts will fly out in some internet cubicles in exchange for some 30 pieces of silver. Families of those who have been retrenched might disintegrate in due time, and leaving the province for good in search for some greener Capitols somewhere. Like anthropomorphic creatures infesting the wild marshes, these are just some of the gloomy animals that could possibly inhabit the region immediately after miscalculating allegedly its supposed plan of increasing the said salaries which, we now know, has made any Agusanon close to being stampeded upon.

A P10 million fund for the recently concluded Naliyagan Festival speaks volumes in terms of putting your feet where your mouth is. Somehow it gave us an affirmation that the province is doing a fine job of making their people feel alive and well on any given day, at least from the entertainment standpoint, that the people of Caraga deserve a break from the penury of daily sustenance and basic needs which the province has long been a perpetual casualty (one of the poorest regions in the country), but because the fund only lasts within a week, one begins to question that as soon as the party was over, much of the Caraga continent reverts back to its old ways of smattering and survival, not to mention if the supposed budget was properly used.

No Plan Bs this time, as usual. The Provincial Government just let it all pass over the dam and under the bridge. They couldn’t care less about those who did not find any favor in the hearts and minds of the powers that be. And as if the situation isn’t dire enough, those who had been retrenched offered no resistance at all, none so far, except for a few gaucheries that could potentially malign their former office, but soon found its gossiping trend losing its taste, while much of what is at stake in this particular retrenchment is still keeping its mouth shut. But, of course, you could almost feel the fulcrum of gratitude (utang na loob) tacitly given to those who, survivors of the said retrenchments, supported the present dispensation during the last election, because until you acknowledge, unfortunately, the extent of political reference in doing business in this side of the Hibong River, then you have not yet arrived in Caraga in the first place.

As for the now unemployed crowd, they could only cross their fingers, swear at the top of their lungs, for an immediate replacement of their jobs. The lockout will eventually consume them until such time they could secure another one, which can be too disheartening at times, what with all the politics involved therein even in the selection of some applicants. And as much as we deny the existence of such a connection, we just couldn’t take the issue for what it is: a simple laying off of employees, no more, no less. Somehow it always begs the question of motive and timing. Who knows that these retrenched individuals are already in the charity list long before the festival had begun? That is probably a credible motive, and the timing could have been any better.

Finding politics right in the middle of some retrenchment is tantamount to having a monopoly of opportunities and interests only those close to the gods can easily avail of, and since only a few are so close to it, many are forced to leave Valhalla without prior notice. Working in the government is always a choice between knowing your work full well and knowing full well who you work for. This may sound so discriminating to the retrenched ones (because it is), but this transactional ruling has sustained the political ascendancy of this region for a very long time. And unless you’re willing to slay those dragons, those larger than life issues lurking behind a seemingly curable problem like unemployment, it would be wise to stay inside the tower than face these anthropomorphic creatures. Maybe it’s about time we surrender our swords, or we can die trying.