You know if it’s election season back in our beloved Philippines: politicians are all around blurting out anything on their minds.
Politicians talk a lot. And, of course, they talk of things the voters want to hear. But, one thing is noticeably clear: the politicians’ spiels verge on lies- at times, on nonsense.
For instance, last week, Vice President Noli De Castro, in a speech before graduates of the University of Batangas, said that jobs are forthcoming for the new graduates.
De Castro said, “Your search for jobs won’t be long because the positive economic indicators clearly suggest that jobs would be abundant sooner than you expect.” “The economic gains reaped by the Philippines recently will provide more employment opportunities for the country’s new graduates.” See Manila Bulletin’s article.
Some graduates may have been beguiled hearing those words from De Castro. But I also imagined that many of the listeners may have raised eye brows on De Castro’s pitch.
What De Castro talked about is a far cry from reality. Far from being untrue, it also raised false hopes on poor graduates, who wish of finding decent paying jobs once they get their sheepskins.
When one reads articles about the Philippines - the more recent is the PERC survey giving our country a bad mark as Asia’s most corrupt- one readily thinks that politicians are really parsimonious with the truth.
The fact is, our country’s economy is in the doldrums. And that there are always people joining the beeline leaving abroad in search for jobs. This is why, as I said in my earlier posting, the root cause of the diaspora of Filipinos is our bad economy.
In one of its recent editorials, the Philippine Star said, “As economic experts have pointed out, however, the country isn’t attracting enough job-generating investments. The dearth of such investments as well as depressingly low salaries in this country are driving overseas a steady stream of Filipinos, including teachers, health professionals and skilled workers in specialized fields such as aviation. Over eight million Filipinos are now working abroad, most of them away from their families.” See Philippine Star’s editorial.
So, at election time, take politicians’ words with a grain of salt. As you know, they’re always economical with the truth.
There’s a reason for this: As Will Rogers once said, “If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics.”
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