Patse-patse na, pitsi-pitsi pa (and a way forward)

(Source:BusinessWorld)

An important task of national leadership is to highlight information that would otherwise be ignored or set aside. Sometimes this can be as vital as telling the public that it is possible to sterilize their face masks with kerosene. At other times it is to place items on the national agenda that were previously thought to be too contentious or difficult to implement but which new circumstances have made urgent.

Unemployment insurance is one such item.

To be honest, I did not expect to write on this topic — at least not this soon. But I caught Vice-President Leni Robredo’s televised address on Aug. 24 and was pleased to hear that among her suggestions to address the current health-cum-economic crisis was to institute an unemployment insurance system. She also pointed to the fact that a bill towards that end (HB 7208) had already been filed by Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo. (Call me biased: but with two eminent alumnae of the UP School of Economics behind it, the idea cannot be ignored.)