Delegates will know more about Phl

On May 21-23, the World Economic Forum will be held in Metro Manila. This means we need to put our best foot forward, after all it is the first time that the Philippines is hosting the WEF. According to news reports and quoting from the Philippine Star’s editorial last Saturday entitled “Best Foot Forward.” “The nation is rolling out the red carpet for next week’s 23rd World Economic Forum on East Asia. It will be the first time that the Philippines is hosting an event of the Geneva-based Swiss non-profit foundation. WEF organizers have said they picked the Philippines because it is ‘one of the greatest comeback stories in recent years’ and is expected to be the best performing Southeast Asian economy this year.”

Frankly speaking, I’m glad that they chose the Philippines for the WEF so that the 2,500 delegates who are mostly world leaders and top business executives would be able to see for themselves what is happening in the Philippines. This is why I liked the caricature in The Star last Saturday which showed President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III welcoming the foreign guests, while trying to shut down the skeletons trying to get out of his closet.

For sure those 2,500 foreign delegates would have a first-hand look at our badly mismanaged international airports at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Perhaps they would even read many local commentaries on why Pres. PNoy Aquino doesn’t lift his finger to solve the problems plaguing our international airports. This only proves that Pres. PNoy closes his eyes when it comes to sheer incompetence of his own “Bata Batas.”

I was in Plantation Bay Resort over the weekend with my whole family for our annual Avila Family weekend and my good friend, Plantation Bay owner Manny Gonzales, joined us for breakfast to exchange our views in the tourism industry. He apparently wrote his recommendations to Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, but the tourism boss never bothered to answer his letter. This shows you that the Cabinet secretaries under Pres. PNoy Aquino don’t want to be advised on anything even by the people working inside the tourism industry. This is one for the ethics committee, which should chastise the tourism secretary for not responding to his letters.

Almost this week, pundits are concentrating their focus on the sorry state of our international airports… and this can only be traced to the bad mismanagement of Pres. PNoy Aquino…whom his political ally, Sen. Serge Osmeña III already tagged as an “awful manager.” If Pres. PNoy believes that he is an awful manager, just imagine what his political opponents are saying about this incompetent President.

Now back to the WEF… if there is anything going for the Philippines, the Global Gender Gap 2010 Report released its findings last week and the Philippines ranked 9th amongst nearly 200 countries in gender equity. We are the highest-ranking country on education and health among Asian countries because we finally had the Reproductive Health Law approved. But in truth, these foreign delegates don’t know that this is toothless and therefore, a useless law that cannot be implemented.

The report also states, “In terms of the Philippines, this high ranking helps illustrate the great strides Filipino women have made in society; they have a longer lifespan than men; more women than men are enrolled in colleges and universities. Many more women hold CEO positions than before in top corporations and in previously male-dominated positions like law, medicine and engineering. More women are registered to vote than men, and women make up a higher percentage in Congress than ever before.

Having had two women presidents (a total of 16 years in the last 50 years) has contributed significantly to lessen the gap between men and women in terms of political participation. However this indicator needs to be qualified, as counting the number of years a woman was in the presidency is too simple if the president was unpopular and implemented policies that were not empowering women.”

While this Global Gender Gap 2010 Report came out only last week, we’ve known for a long time now that there are more women in schools than men… and that’s due to the reality that the men had to work, while the women go to school. This is especially true to those in the poverty level, where men work in construction projects, while they allow women to study in school in the hope that they would uplift the family. As far as politics is concerned, most women in politics are there because their fathers or mothers or siblings are also politicians. They have become part of the political elite that has ruled and corrupted this nation in the last 28 years.

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E-mail: vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com