People in the neighborhood

Yesterday I had to go to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) as part of data-gathering for a study my officemate Socs and I are conducting on our marinos. Marine officers are licensed professionals and PRC processes their various requirements to go on-board international vessels.

All licensed professionals from doctors, engineers, teachers and accountants no matter where they are right now and how much they are earning, at one point in time waited in line and endured the heat at the PRC Office in Morayta. It doesn’t matter if you graduated summa cum laude from the best university in the country. Without a license, there is just no way you can practice your chosen profession.

The PRC supervises and administers licensure examinations to more than forty professions. Some exams are conducted twice or even thrice a year. Some professions, which include marine officers and nurses, require revalidation or renewal of license every so often. This means that the country’s professionals most especially the dollar earners periodically visit the dilapidated and decrepit PRC building. If the PRC building represents the kind of professionals we produce, there’s hardly anything to explain for our country’s sorry state.

Professionals are supposed to be the country’s backbone and they somehow reflect how progressive a country is. Advanced economies are characterized as those with low income inequality wherein the gap between the rich and the poor is not as big and wide as the Niagara as what the case is in the Philippines. How could I forget my college professor’s social pyramid and inverted pyramid which demonstrate how the country’s 2% of the population control 90% of the country’s wealth while everyone else make do with what is left. A society with perfectly equal incomes has a gini coefficient of 1. Our gini coefficient is 0.33.

I believe this is so because although we have a broad middle-class, they are not actually empowered. One need not look farther than the old and cramped office of the PRC which is a clear indication of how the government treats its most-prized human resources. The ugly façade is not the only problem. The office lacks the facilities and the manpower needed to cater to the needs of the country’s lifeblood, those who pay their taxes and contribute in very concrete ways to the country’s productivity.

The neglect that the PRC experiences is probably one reason why our teachers, nurses and engineers go away. We always sweat over the big shots and overlook those that matter. Giving importance to these professionals will definitely redound to the nation’s interest because we improve on our human capital and make way for the country’s wealth to extend.

Return of the Comeback

No, I was not abducted by aliens nor did I succumb to any kind of illness and was brought back to life. I did meet a few aliens though and almost collapsed in fatigue from September to December as I slaved day-in and day-out (holidays included) in the (not quite) concluded Consultative Commission. Details of which, official or otherwise, will come out in my memoirs in my twilight years, when it is not as big news as it is now.

In the meantime, revel in my pictures taken during my much-awaited one week vacation in Sagada and Banaue last week, December 26-30. My body ached from all the climbing, caving, fiera traveling, trekking and excessive eating that ensued, not to mention the pension house sans heater that we stayed in. It didn’t, however, spoil the fun and it was certainly the most bombastic way of ending a tough year.


My first attempt at spelunking


Stack 'em up!


The eighth and ninth wonders


Banaue homies


Oh d-d-d-dear!


Echo Valley a.k.a. Jumping Station (certainly not the best way to die)


Season's Greetings from the people from the boondocks