Pension: Right or entitlement?

Retirees aren’t looking for an entitlement on money they’ve invested in the Retirement Fund for 20-plus years. They’ve participated in their investments directly, the other side being the fiduciary responsibility of government per the law establishing the Fund in 1979 to remit its share. They looked forward to a return on their investments after meeting 20 or so years of government service.

An uncle, a government plumber for 20 years, started investing a portion of his salary biweekly as a member of the Fund. After 20 years, he retired for it was time “to surrender to the younger folks.” He was confident his investment would pay for health insurance and other obligations to get by as a simple person.

“Now they are saying that Fund has only two years to go. What then becomes of me and other retirees when the Fund dries up?” he asked, puzzled at the impending hardship he had to endure. “If the government failed to pay its share, isn’t it its responsibility to borrow somewhere so it could complete its legal obligation?”

My uncle, a bit weak and fragile due to age, ponders his livelihood after the Fund goes belly up. “If administrations have failed to pay, why are we now the victims of its indecision or lack of responsibility to meet an obligation?” This collective Republican failure must be one trophy of malfeasance and misfeasance in public office that governance will never ever forget.

I admire Senate President Paul Manglona’s use of raw political power to push the governor into his rightful place on this issue. Why would he shirk and skirt his responsibilities to answer questions directly at a forum conducted by the Govendo court? Isn’t this attitude a true reflection of his MO when in comes to real-time problem solving? Sir, retirees aren’t asking for “better times” per your failed promises. They are only asking for a share of their investments into the Fund. Does this make sense at all?

The simplest answer is for the administration to take out a bond obligation and pay off its debt, including subsequent obligations every time, all the time as asserted by my uncle.

I don’t know how else would it deal with an issue given a huge loss in revenue streams. And the only people that want us to think that our investment in the Fund is an entitlement are the politicians who made sure the program steers clear of solvency. They’ve created a colossal fiscal disaster while they ask, with head in the sand, “Is the beast is gone already?” A` Saina!

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Midterm election: Offer, anybody?

With the economy still sliding to rock bottom, it would be interesting what new and old politicians have to offer voters when they hit the campaign trail this year. Should be excellent fodder for casual or probing discussions by governance. And, boys, excuse me, we want real answers not tired and redundant rhetoric regurgitated time and again in recent past.

So far we have laws against hanging undergarments outside in Garapan, bicycling, two basketball rims, proposed casino (twice shot down by governance). Notice that none of these issues deal with the apocalyptically deteriorating economy that includes increases in fees for utilities, gas at the pumps, basic commodities, work hour reduction, and quizzing what’s next after payless paydays for retirees? Notice that none had the courage to push the administration to permit implementation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP?

Is it because they each receive more than $40K per year, sufficiently above what most folks earn annually that isn’t even subject to austerity? What callousness prolonging the status quo, scaffolding their interest over the general public. Is this your definition of leadership succumbing to mediocrity in terms of performance? What have you done individually or collectively to improve the livelihood of villagers who yearn for answers?

If the economy is such a humongous and blurry issue in your adolescent mind, have you sought for professional assistance so you could, in concert with private industries, coherently navigate your way through it with an educated inkling of the nature of the beast? If your performance lands squarely on mediocrity, why would you want us to believe that a second term would produce miracles? Isn’t your track record a sufficient tale of your future in policymaking, usually confused and disoriented? Please, explain yourself in the vernacular with real clarity what your plans are this time. And please do so without sliding into tired rhetoric and redundancy. We need to hear fresh and thoroughly researched ideas, di ba? Let’s see you justify your existence!

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Republic of the Philippines

I’ve always been interested in what the Republic of the Philippines does as an island country. I do so for it was once a Commonwealth of the U.S. before it decided to declare independence and bolt out on its own. Indeed, it must have been a difficult issue to resolve but they did so, albeit the challenges it faces as a new republic.

Indeed, it has its own travails as a developing independent country during its incipient years. It had to endure the wraths of a dictator they subsequently ousted from office. Today, it has regained political stability, its most important asset as it sets sail to rebuild and move forward with lasting partnership on investments from powerful tiger and lion countries that give it stronger muscles to rein in wealth and jobs creation.

Through its own research and development, it came out with a boneless milkfish and recently shipped some nine tons of it to China. Again, through R&D it shifted the taste and scent of a certain banana that suits the palate of Japanese consumers. It resolved diseases that adversely affected its cocoa industry by flying in its own scientist from Florida. And it is now the likely home of a huge automobile spare parts and automobile production from big brand names out of Japan. It has capitalized on the billion-dollar non-sweet sugar industry using coconut sap on a global basis. It’s her political stability that has made it the center of attraction from major investors in Asia.

Other than her forte in the high-tech industry, these are some of the areas it has undertaken destined for global markets that would improve income and jobs generation for her people. As I read and digest these undertakings, I quiz what have we exported from the NMI to the global market. I mean global includes Europe, Asia, the U.S., and other Western economies. I recall having seen tons of clothing shipped off to markets during the peak of the apparel industry here. When it shut down, it shut the floodgates of exports concurrently too. Did I miss something here?