A four-in-one process

by Ike Señeres

It’s not surprising that most of the people who come to the Inter-Charity Network for assistance in getting a job want to go abroad, to take on any job that they could get. This desire might be realistic for those who are younger and those who are more qualified, but unfortunately, many of the job seekers lack the experience for a foreign job, aside from being over aged for the available positions.

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As an alternative to foreign jobs, applicants at Inter-Charity are always offered local jobs, for them to consider, that is if they also have the needed qualifications for these openings. More often than not however, it is the age limit in the openings that shut them out, and that is the reason why we are always ready to offer them the means to put up their own small business, hoping that they would have the aptitude and interest to go into it.

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After going through the motions of offering them foreign jobs, local jobs and small businesses and they still could not choose something productive for them to do, it then becomes obvious that we may have a welfare case in our hands, and that is when we decide to refer them to the local welfare offices or to the Department of Social Welfare & Development (DSWD). Sad to say however, it appears that the government is also not in a position to provide continuing welfare assistance to these citizens, so much so that they would practically end up nowhere also.

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Fortunately for the Inter-Charity Network, most of the people who come to us are not welfare cases, meaning that they are still very much willing and able to be productive by way of a job, or by way of a small business. Many of them would in fact combine a job and a business just to make both ends meet, as their way of keeping up with the hard times.

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While I am in a way happy with the four in one process that we have established to help the people who come to us, I am saddened by the fact that we really do not have a stable and sustainable system of providing for the needs of those who truly and genuinely need welfare assistance. While it could not be denied that there are many poor people in this country, not all of them could be considered as real welfare cases that is if they still have the means to be productive by earning an income.
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It’s a long story to tell, but by now it is already well known that the goal of devolving the public health function to the local government units (LGUs) has failed miserably. If I remember it correctly, the goal then was to transform the Department of Health into a policy maker and capability builder, meaning to say that it would only be tasked with supporting the LGUs as they operate their own local hospitals and health clinics.

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If not for the bad experience that we had in devolving the health function, I would strongly support the idea of devolving the social welfare function also, in such a way that the DSWD would become a policy maker and capability builder also, in other words supporting the LGUs in delivering their own social welfare services.

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As policy makers at the central level, the DOH and DSWD could be tasked with developing, implementing and monitoring health and welfare standards respectively, by working closely with the local departments that are tasked with these functions. If we could have this system in place, the only remaining challenge would be the acquisition of resources that could help them achieve these standards.

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In reality, local governments do have the resources to fund the delivery of health and welfare services, if only they could put their priorities in the right order. Aside from that, it is a known fact that the Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) and the Countryside Development Funds are also intended to supplement their local resources, so there is really no reason for them to say that they do not have the money for these purposes.

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Based on our experience at the Inter-Charity Network, the best way of determining whether an applicant is already a welfare case or not, is to find out first if he or she is still employable or not. This includes starting a small business, which is actually a form of self-employment. We have also learned that in the process of determining their livelihood needs, we are also able to determine their needs for health services.

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While it could be said that it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks, I still wish that the government would pick up a few new tricks from the Inter-Charity Network, for instance the approach of weeding out welfare cases from the job applicants, and identifying the health cases as well. I would not even try to suggest this approach if I have not tried it myself, but I do know that it works, if only the government would want to try it too. On the practical side, the government may encounter “turf” problems as these functions would cut across several agencies, but what is that compared to the greater goal of being able to serve our people better?
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At the risk of making it sound too simplistic, I would still say that it may be easier for anybody to start a small business than to look for a new job, provided of course that he or she could find a market for whatever it is that he or she would be making or providing. Eighty million people is already a huge market that anyone could ever imagine, despite the reality that our local markets are swamped by foreign goods due to the advent of the so called globalization era.

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Even with foreign products in our midst, the name of the game in marketing is still quality and price, and there is no other way to play the game except to compete head on in these two attributes. Although it is unrealistic to say so in a generalized sense, I would still say that it is very much possible to produce local products that are at par with the quality of imported goods, with a competitive price to match it.

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In theory, most of our citizens should already be retired, meaning that they are no longer expected to work anymore, with the added presumption that they are supposed to have pensions that could sustain their needs. This presumption is of course wrong, because more often than not, their retirement pays are already depleted only a few years after they retire. The problem is, it is very difficult for them to go back to work after they have already retired.

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If you are a senior citizen with a good command of the English language and has the skill to work with a computer, you could still be employed as a call center agent, no matter how old you are. If you are good in English, but you do not know how to use a computer, get in touch with me, I will teach you.

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Tune in to "Gulong ng Kabuhayan" on DZXL (558 KHZ) Mon to Fri 6 to 6:45 PM. Join the Inter-Charity Network. We assist you in looking for a job or setting up a small business. Email ike@kaiking.net or text 09175684855.Unit 324, Guadalupe Commercial Complex, EDSA, Makati.