Dispatches

Written by Jesus F. Llanto
Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Mar Roxas: Don’t price the Philippines out of the market.

Call centers may have increased their employees’ salaries too much too soon in the last 5 years that the practice may become “unsustainable” despite the the double digit growth that the industry is expected to post this year.

During the Call Center Conference & Expo 2009 in Pasay City, experts said that while industry is expected to post “healthy double digit” growth of 15-20% despite the economic crisis, companies must address the high salary inflation of call center agents.

Benedict Hernandez, president of the Contact Center Association in the Philippines (CCAP), said that salaries of call center agents increased annually by 10 percent, starting in 2004, when the industry experienced rapid growth as the Philippines became a preferred outsourcing destination.

“When you hear 10% year-on-year salary inflation, whether you’re under a global economic crisis or not, that is simply unsustainable,” Hernandez said. He advised companies to instead focus on giving performance-based incentives to their employees.

(Click here to read the rest of the story.)

Newsbreak Special Issue

Newsbreak magazine’s special edition on decent work is now off the press.
Called “Toil and Trouble,” the collection of in-depth articles examines current trends and explores various issues on labor and employment.

Made all the more timely and relevant by the current financial crisis, the special issue looks into layoffs at export processing zones, the call center phenomenon, contractualization in the retail industry, safety at work, the fading appeal of workers’ unions, the killing of labor leaders, among other issues.

Copies are available at bookstores and at the Newsbreak office. Call 920-0997 for bulk orders.

CONTENTS

By the Numbers

Facts and figures on labor and employment

OVERVIEW

The Hidden Jobs Crisis

By Roel Landingin

The government is reporting just a small number of jobs lost as the economy slows down, but the impact on workers lives is devastating.

CONTRACTUAL LABOR

A Nation of Casuals

By Clarence Pascual

Non-standard work is on the rise among wage earners, diminishing the gains from the steady shift from self-employment to higher quality jobs.

OVERSEAS WORKERS

Uncertain Future

By Prime Sarmiento

Overseas work has become a riskier and less rewarding proposition, but most Filipinos still prefer it to domestic alternatives.

ECONOMIC ZONES

Enclaves of Sorrow

By Jesus Llanto

Factories in special economic zones allegedly ignore labor standards, but there are no of few alternatives for laid-off workers but to return to these employers.

CALL CENTERS

Hello and Goodbye

By Clarence Pascual

Call centers still offer high-paying jobs amid the global slowdown, but work-related stress and ill-health are rife among workers.

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

From Shipyard to Graveyard

By Raymund Antonio

The growing number of fatalities at the Hanjin shipyard reveals problems both with investors and the government.

FARMING

Hard Labor

By Earl Parreno

Farming remains backbreaking work with few rewards.

DEEP-SEA FISHING

Nowhere to Fish

By Criselda Yabes

Dwindling tuna catches are turning deep-sea fishing from a decent livelihood into a game of chance for the proud fishermen of Kiamba in Southern Mindanao.

SOCIAL INSURANCE

Protection Racket

By Roel Landingin

Social security institutions have mixed feelings about expanding or introducing new benefits for troubled members.

LABOR UNIONS

Losing Ground

By Carmela Fonbuena

Labor unions fight an uphill battle to maintain relevance amid corporate controls and worker

apathy.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Collateral Victims

By Aries Rufo

Labor leaders and organizers are turning up dead or missing in the course of the government’s counterinsurgency drive.

THE WORKPLACE

Who Moved My Office?

By Jesse Edep

Technology and new business models radically transform the Philippine workplace.

FIRST PERSON

Nighttimer

Why a call center agent decided to keep his job.

By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
December 3, 2008

The global economic crisis is slowing down the demand for services in some sectors of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry and experts are saying they may revise growth targets for 2010.

At the ongoing 2-day BPO Summit Philippines 2008 in Ortigas business district, industry leaders from the various sectors of the BPO industry said that the slowdown in the United States—where major BPO clients are located—and in other major economies have slowed down their operations.

Industry leaders from the non-voice sectors of the BPO industry like animation and transcription said that the financial crisis has been affected by decreasing demand from the United States.

Grace Dimaranan, president of the Animation Council of the Philippines, said some of the projects they have were on hold due to the recession. “Some animation series where reduced.”

The animation sector has been growing by an average of 38 percent during the past three years, data from the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) showed. In 2007, it generated a revenue of US$105 million or 2 percent of the US13 billion generated by the entire BPO industry in 2007.

Meanwhile, Myla Reyes, managing director of the Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAPI) said that some of their operations slowed down as a result of the economic meltdown.

The transcription sector generated US$197 million or 4 percent of the total BPO revenues. For the past three years, the sector is growing at an average of 24 percent.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Newsbreak gathered this year’s most memorable quotes from the country’s most sensational events. If you ask us, the “Best Quotes Award” is a tossup between ousted president Joseph Estrada and former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri. Not far behind is presidential daughter Evangeline Lourders “Luli” Arroyo.

Take your pick.

Click here to read the list.

The verdict on the plunder case of Philippine former president Joseph Estrada will come out tomorrow.

The trial of Joseph Estrada came to a close last July 15 when the prosecution and the defense wrapped up their arguments.The prosecution, which presented 626 pages of summaries of the case, argued that they have presented enough evidence to prove that Estrada is guilty of accepting bribes from jueteng, kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes and illegal commissions from the sale of the shares of a company and of by depositing huge amount of money in a bank account under an alias.

Meanwhile, the defense submitted 276 pages of summaries of the rebuttals said that the prosecution presented “uncorroborated testimonies” and that it failed to prove the charges against Estrada.

The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan is expected to come out with a decision to this long-running trial on or before September 15.

Click here to see summary of charge no. 1. Download it here.
Click here to see summary of charge no. 2. Download it here.
Click here to see summary of charge no. 3. Download it here.
Click here to see summary of charge no. 4. Download it here.

Four billion-plunder case

Estrada’s P 4.097 billion plunder case is composed of four charges: acceptance o P545 million protection money from illegal gambling jueteng , misappropriation of f P130 million tobacco excise tax, collection of P 189.7 million commission the sale of the shares of Belle Corp., and amassing and depositing P3, 233, 104, 173.17 in a bank account under the name of Jose Velarde.

He is also facing minor charges of perjury for allegedly underreporting his assets in 1999.

Estrada denied the charges and accused that his successor, Gloria Arroyo conspired with the high-ranking military officials and the Roman Catholic Church to oust him in January 2001.

Too Many Judges

The case was first tried in the Third Division of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. The division was then composed of Justices Anacleto Badoy, Ricardo Ilarde and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.

On January 2002, the Supreme Court ordered to create a Special Division that would hear all the cases against Estrada. The Special Division was composed of Minita Chico-Nazario as presiding judge and Justices Edilberto G. Sandoval and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.

Sandoval became the acting presiding judge when Nazario was appointed as justice of the Supreme Court on August 2004. Meanwhile, Justice Francisco Villaruz, Jr. became the newest member of the Special Division.

After De Castro was appointed as the presiding judge, Sandoval resigned from the Special Division. The Supreme Court then designated Justice Diosdado Peralta on Feb. 8, 2005 as the new member of the Special Division.

As a result of these changes, De Castro is the only justice who was able to hear the testimonies of the witnesses of the prosecution and the defense.

High-profile witnesses

The prosecution presented 76 witnesses and more than 1,500 evidences. Its key witness is Luis Singson, former Ilocos Sur governor and a senatorial candidate from Team Unity. Singson testified that Estrada received kickbacks from jueteng and diverted funds intended for tobacco farmers.

Prosecution witnesses also included former of the Social Security System (SSS) president Carlos Arellano former Government Services Insurance System (GSIS) president Federico Pascual and Willie Ng Ocier, former vice chair of Belle Corp., a company in the property development business and with investments in gaming-related companies.

Pascual’s and Arellano’s testimonies were used by the prosecution to prove that Estrada instructed the two officials to buy shares of the Belle Corporation.

Other witnesses of the prosecution included officials of Equitable-PCI Bank like Atty. Manuel Curato and Clarissa Ocampo, who testified that she was “one foot away” from Estrada when he signed the bank documents using the name “Jose Velarde.”

Rebuttals

Meanwhile, the defense presented 79 witnesses to rebut the testimonies of the prosecution, including the accused Estrada who denied all the allegations against him.

Estrada testified from March to June 2006. and even celebrated his 69th birthday on the witness stand on April 19. He said that the allegations of Singson were politically motivated because the latter failed to get the license to operate Bingo-2 balls in Ilocos Sur to his political rivals.

The defense also presented employees of Equitable-PCI Bank to prove that Jaime Dichaves owned the Jose Velarde account. Moreover, it also claimed that none of the prosecution witnesses presented were involved in the opening and closing of the Velarde account.

Co-accused

Co-accused in the plunder charges includes Estrada’s son and incumbent senator Jinggoy, lawyer Edward Serapio, Yolanda Ricaforte, Delia Rajas, Eleuterio Tan, Jaime Dichaves, Alma Alfaro and Charlie “Atong” Ang.
Serapio and Estrada were allowed by the Sandiganbayan to post P500, 000 bail each in 2003.

Meanwhile, Ang had pleaded guilty to corruption of public official and paid P25 million, an amount he allegedly pocketed from the 130 million tobacco excise taxes intended for the Ilocos Sur government, as part of a plea bargain agreement. Other co-accused are still at large.

Photo Credit: news.bbc.co.uk

Photographers are invited to send entries to a photography contest that aims to depict Muslim integration in the Philippines, following the legacy of UK’s renowned photographer and Muslim convert Peter Sanders.

Sponsored by the British Embassy in partnership with Newsbreak, the competition has two categories: professional, for those who earn a living from photography or are hobbyists who have participated in photo contests; and amateur, for those who do not earn a living from photography and who may submit photos taken with their mobile phone cameras.

Click here to see contest rules.

Rating: 4 .75/5

What if God was one of us?

Yes, that’s a line from the Joan Osbourne’s 1995 hit song, One of Us. And it’s also the premise of the now defunct and short-lived CBS family drama series “Joan of Arcadia’.

Source: Youtube

The series, which was aired from 2003-2005, revolves around the story of a teenager Joan Girardi (played by Amber Tamblyn) from the fictional town of Arcadia, Maryland. Her quiet and normal life took a 360-degree turn when God, appearing in various personas like janitress, little girl, elderly people, twin girls and even cute guys, started talking to her and asked her to do some errands. God talked to her for the first time through an incarnation of a young guy.

Source: Youtube

God (incarnations of God) would ask Joan to do some tasks for Him like finding a job, joining the cheering squad or taking the class bully to the school dance. The significance of these tasks were usually revealed at the end of the show. But aside from the usual sightings and conversations with God, Joan has also other problems to solve–a feeling that her life has no direction, an oversensitive boyfriend and a family members who were all having their own struggle. His father, police officer Will Girardi (Joe Montegna), has a superior who liked him. Her mother, art teacher Helen (Mary Steenburgen) , is slowly losing his faith in God. His elder brother, paraplegic journalist Kevin (Jason Ritter), struggles to live a normal life after a tragic accident and his younger brother, science geek Luke (Michael Welch), is having a relationship with the rebellious Grace Polk (Becky Wahlstrom).

Source: Youtube

In the second season, another character who can see and talk to God appeared and challenged Joan but the plot was not explored because the show was cancelled due to decline in ratings.

Not preachy

Despite the fact that the show included God among the characters, it is not preachy. People from different religion can watch the show wihout feeling alienated. During the pilot telecast, the incarnation of God said, “It’s not about religion. It’s about fulfilling your nature.”, perhaps telling the viewers that the show does not favor any religion or sect.

The strength of this show is its brilliant script and excellent performances.Its a drama series but you don’t see actors slapping one another or crying buckets of tears just to make the audience feel sad. There’s the substory of love yet the story does not revolve around it alone

The plot is very unpredictable. An episode, for instance, starts with a preparation for Joan’s first date and ends with the death of her bestfriend.Tamblyn, Montegna, Ritter, Welch and Steenburgen gave excellent performances as members of the Girardi family. Steenburgen’s portrayal of a confused mother is superb. But the only thing bad about the show is that viewers may feel sometimes that Joan has turned into God’s slave and that she cannot make her own decisions. Despite this, Joan of Arcadia is still, and will be remembered as an excellent compelling and must-see drama series.

Note:
Despite critical acclaim, the show was cancelled by CBS in 2005 due to declining ratings.

Photo source: CBS.com