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Showing posts from July, 2013

Friendliness: A Pure Filipino Trademark

"I should be back home before the sun comes down," I said to myself. A bus dispatcher on the terminal approached me, "Where are you heading,mam?" "Baguio," I politely replied. "Where are the buses?" "Oh, you better take the van, ma'm.  Buses will be arriving soon but you will have to wait 3 more hours before it takes off." Okay, fine.  I motioned toward the open van, entered carefully upon seeing two passengers already sitting on the mid-part.  I was thinking that sitting at the back will give me quiet time maybe. It was barely a second after I sat, vendors start knocking on my window. P-e-r-s-i-s-t-e-n-t-l-y. These vendors are never gonna leave me unless I buy.  Gotta show them I bought already.  Okay, fine.  Buy and goodbye. One by one, passengers start coming in.  Thirty minutes after, we're hitting the road. Finally. Time for me to sleep.  In two hours, I should be where I wanna be. 

PROVINCIAL WAGE RATE: An Accepted Form of Discrimination

Pedro and Juan are classmates in a private college in the city.  One permanently resides in Manila while the other boards and go to his province every weekend. They pay the same tuition fee, read the same books, and pass the same tests each semester.  They walk on the same stage to get their diplomas. As they apply for work for the same type of job at the same type of industry, one applies in the same city while the other comes back to his own province.  The one in the city gets an offer of P18,000 pesos starting pay while the one in the province gets an offer of P12,000 pesos. They are given the same type of exams, same type of trainings. Everything the same. EXCEPT FOR THE PAY.  Thanks to 'PROVINCIAL RATE' policy being enforced nationwide since time forgotten. It's like saying 'employees in the provinces are all inferior to those from the national capital region'. A form of discrimination that our society has already embraced, a discrimination that c