New charter to improve UP’s competitiveness but more funds needed

By Jesus F.Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

June18,2008-The distinction as a “national university,” tax exemptions, a new composition of the policy-making body, more flexibility to manage the resources and freedom from the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) are among the promises of the new charter of the University of the Philippines.

Still, UP badly needs additional support from the national government to be at par with other universities in the region. Simply to increase the salaries of its employees, the country’s newly crowned “national university” needs to raise least P3.6 billion—an amount more than three times the income earned by the university in 2007.

UP professors cannot immediately expect higher salaries as a result of the passage of the new charter. Prof. Ma. Concepcion Alfiler, UP’s vice president for finance and development, said that the university does not have the enough resources for this.

The university, she said, needs to raise at least P3.6 billion to pay the salaries of its employees. The amount does not yet include the retirement and life insurance premium and is more than three times the income earned by the university in 2007.

Exemption from the SSL will also mean that UP faculty cannot avail themselves of the 10 percent salary increase to be given to government employees.

“We now have the legal basis for the pay scale but we have to generate the resources and that will take time,” Alfiler said. “The pay will stay but we can only add.”

The university, Alfiler said, can only augment salaries by offering professorial chairs, grants and though awards for published works in refereed journals.

National university

Republic Act 9500 (An Act to Strengthen the University of the Philippines as the National University), which was signed last April by the President in Cebu, gives the university more autonomy and replaces the outdated UP charter of 1908.

The new charter promises to bring more fiscal and institutional autonomy to the university. It also designates the UP as the country’s “national university.” (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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Photo Credit: www.up.edu.ph

Legislators push English as medium of instruction

By Jesus F. Llanto

June 10,2008- Despite a number of studies confirming that learning is faster using the native language, government officials are still pushing for the adoption of English as a medium on instruction (MOI) in Philippine schools.

A check on the bills filed in the 14th Congress shows that there are three bills—House Bills 230, 305, 406—seeking for either the re-instatement or enhancement of the use of English as a medium of instruction.

The three bills propose the use of English, Filipino or the regional languages as MOI in all subjects from pre-school to Grade II. They prescribe the use of English for all academic subjects from Grade III up to the secondary level.

Proponents of these bills claim that the decline in the English proficiency of the Filipinos and the deterioration of the quality of the education have eroded the competitiveness of the Filipinos.

Rep. Eduardo Gullas, author of HB 305, said in the bill’s explanatory note that the proposed legislation aims to correct the defects of the current Bilingual Education Program (BEP) of the Department of the Education, which was introduced in 1974.

The BEP mandated the teaching not only of Filipino as a subject in all levels but also the use of Filipino as MOI in Social Studies, Character Education, Values Education, Physical Education, Industrial Arts and Home Economics.

Gullas said learning of the English language suffered a setback when the BEP was introduced in 1974. "The use of Filipino as a medium of instruction in the subjects mentioned earlier has limited the exposure of the learner to English, and since exposure is basic to language learning, mastery of the language is not attained." (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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Newsbreak: Rising prices, US slowdown pull down RP growth

By Jesus F.Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

May 29, 2008-Rising fuel and food prices, a slowdown in the United States economy and the negative effects of a stronger peso slowed down the growth of Philippine economy in the first quarter to 5.2 percent from last year’s 7 percent, officials announced Thursday.

They said the figure is within the government’s expected growth range of 5.2-6.2 percent in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter.

“The external sector continues to struggle in an environment characterized by high oil prices and weak global demand,” Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said Thursday.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) lowered yesterday the official economic growth target for 2008 from 6.3 to 7 percent to between 5.7-6.5 percent.

Gross National Product (GNP), meanwhile, expanded by 7.3 percent as a result of the 30.3 percent increase in the country’s net factor income from abroad (NFIA), 89 percent of which are remittances from overseas Filipino workers.

Service sector

Of all the sectors, the services sector remained the strongest and registered a 6.9 percent growth. The figure is lower than last year’s 8.4 percent growth and contributed to 3.3 percentage points in the GDP. Santos said the “healthy” growth was driven by real estate, finance and trade.

“The real estate sub-sector continues to be buoyed by demand for office space as well as residential spaces from OFWs,” Santos said.

Growth in the agriculture sector, which contributed 0.6 percentage points in the GDP, slowed down to 3 percent from last year’s 4 percent.

Santos said the higher output of palay, corn, banana, coconut and poultry and the increasing demand in agricultural-based exports drove the growth in this sector. --with reports from Reuters and ABS-CBN News. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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Newsbreak: 'Too much autonomy' makes RP cities less business friendly

By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak



May 27, 2008--Major cities in the Philippines generally take longer to issue business-related permits and licenses compared to most cities in the world, thus constraining their growth and competitiveness, a recent study shows.

Twenty-one cities in the country are able to authorize numerous and varying procedures in starting businesses in their jurisdictions because, according to a private sector representative, they were given "too much autonomy" under the Local Government Code of 1991.

A representative to the government-created National Competitiveness Council suggested then that some of the taxation powers of local government units (LGUs) be reverted to the national government.

In a study conducted by the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the World Bank on the ease of doing business in cities worldwide, the Philippines ranked 133rd out of 178 countries.

‘Redundant, outdated’

Dealing with a Philippine city to start a business takes an average of 18 procedures and 35 days and costs 27 percent of the income per capita, according to the study. The number of procedures is only two less than the figure for Equatorial Guinea, the country with most procedures to start a business.

"Cities should cut down on unnecessary, redundant, and outdated procedures, and they should take a look at all the procedures that their customers have to go through," said Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, during the presentation Monday of the Doing Business in the Philippines 2008 study at Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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LGUs urged to cut red tape

Photo Credit: www.en.wikipilipinas.org

Newsbreak: BPO experts: Pinoys’ ‘improved’ English skills need more improvement

By Jesus F. Llanto

May 18,2008-Filipino adults may rate themselves better speakers of the English language, as what a recent survey showed, but business process outsourcing (BPO) experts think further improvement is needed in their proficiency if the Philippines is to compete for investments and jobs with other outsourcing havens in Asia.

The Philippines is currently a top destination for outsourcing firms for being an English-speaking country, but China, Vietnam, and Latin American countries are fast catching up by strengthening the English proficiency of their work force.

“We should not be complacent so we can still maintain our advantage,” Jamea Garcia, executive director for talent of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP), told Newsbreak.

The Social Weather Stations presented Thursday the results of an April 2008 survey on self-assessed proficiency in the English language of the Filipinos, which was commissioned by the Promoting English Proficiency Project of the American Chamber of Commerce and the Makati Business Club (MBC.) --with research by Fharhana Abdurahim (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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Newbsreak: New town created in Basilan after 30-year lobby

By Jesus F. Llanto

May 16, 2008-A new municipality has been created in the province of Basilan, cementing the reputation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as the region that most frequently fragment existing local government units (LGU), usually despite their economic non-viability.

A regional lawmaker defended the creation of numerous LGUs, saying it helps prevent clan wars because political families are given their respective turfs, but made guarantees that no more LGUs will be created in the coming years, at least in Basilan.

The town of Tabuan-Lasa was carved out of Sumisip, a third-class municipality. Tabuan-Lasa is composed of 12 barangays—Babag, Balanting, Boloh-Boloh, Bukut-Umus, Kaumpurnah, Lanawan, Pisak-pisak, Saluping, Suligan, Sulloh, Tambulig Buton, and Tong-Umos.

It was created through Muslim Mindanao Act No. (MMA) 187, which was ratified in a plebiscite last March 29. Its creation brings the number of municipalities in Basilan to 11 and reduces the number of barangays in Sumisip, its mother municipality, from 41 to 29.

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Newsbreak: Exec urges improved education to meet BPO manpower demand

By Jesus Llanto

May 7, 2008--The Philippines should focus on implementing policies that will develop its education system and curriculum to meet the demand for workers of the business process outsourcing industry, a high-ranking official of BPO firm Sutherland said.

Dilip Vellodi, chair and chief executive officer of Sutherland Global Services, said policies on curriculum and education should be applied so the Philippines can maintain its position as one of the top outsourcing destinations.

Vellodi said the country must have a "strategic outlook" over the next five to 10 years and must continue to have a "highly educated talent (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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