UP Forum July-August 2014

FORUM UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

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VOLUME 15 NUMBER 4

JULY-AUGUST 2014

ASEAN 2015 HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY

up.edu.ph 2 | Convergence in Work Systems, ASEAN Integration and Implications to Professional Practice

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ith the global movement of capital, people and resource issues in work and employment, as well as labor and capital relations, have become prominent. How would people, technology and resources from various countries and cultures effectively produce desired results? How would the gains or losses arising from competition be shared through improvements in income distribution and living standards? In what areas of work systems—hiring, job design, employment terms

5 | Sharing Lessons 4 | Funding Science Learned in Internationand Technology in an Internationalized World alization

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am not an expert in education and research specific to the ASEAN region or the on-going effort to set a common framework for ASEAN educational integration and internationalization. I will therefore make no effort to regurgitate what I have just recently learned about these important discussions, as I was attempting to contextualize my present contribution. I will simply use the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework as an inevitable supposition for any realistic strategy for promoting science and technology in the ASEAN region. One message from this contribution is that ASEAN educational and research integration is not just something to

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omprehensive internationalization is a commitment, conďŹ rmed through action, to infuse international and comparative perspectives throughout the teaching, research, and service missions of higher education. It shapes institutional ethos and values and touches the entire higher education enterprise. It is essential that it be embraced by institutional leadership, governance, faculty, students, and all academic service and support units. It is an institutional imperative, not just a desirable possibility. (NAFSA, 2011) My initial forays into international education started in 1986 when I was a young recently ten-

2 UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014

CONVERGENCE IN WORK SYSTEMS... continued from page 1

Maragtas S.V. Amante and conditions, compensation, skills development, social security and disputes settlement—will there be more convergence?

These questions have been asked during many periods of industrial history, and significantly by the postwar scholars of industrialization. Kerr, Dunlop, Harbison and Myers' Industrialism and Industrial Man (1960) offered the classic statement of the "logic of industrialism" thesis, which the authors proposed as a response to Marxian theory’s equation of industrial society with capitalism.

The authors suggested that as nations embark on the irreversible journey into industrialization, the unifying forces of industrialism such as class movement, bureaucracy and technology, would conduce societies towards convergence.

Specifically, Kerr et al. sought to identify the "inherent tendencies and implications of industrialization for the work place," hoping to construct from this a portrait of the "principal features of the new society."

The overriding elements common to industrial society which drive convergence include "rapid changes in science, technology, and methods of production; a high degree of occupational mobility, with continual training and retraining of the work force; increasing emphasis on formal education, particularly in the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, managerial training, and administrative law." The convergence theorists also predicted a workforce "highly differentiated in terms of occupational titles and job classifications; the

increasing importance of urban areas as centers of economic activity; and the increasing role of government in providing expanded public services, orchestrating the varied activities of a large and complex economy, and administering the "web of rules of industrial society." Most significantly, Kerr et al. envisioned these developments as cutting across categories of political ideology and political systems.

The convergence hypothesis highlights the arguments that human resource management (HRM) within organizations would become increasingly similar due to a firm having a structure free from cultural influences with globalization. Multinational enterprises shall be free from the influence of national institutions making these global transmission belts of capital the main force for convergence. On the other hand, scholars supporting the divergence hypothesis argue that organizational structures are not set and that management practices would reflect national differences in regulations, government policies, culture and beliefs as well as national educational systems .

Within the ASEAN, it is important to track and examine the convergence towards improvements in the following: w Enterprise development and job creation by domestic and foreign investment; w Patterns of management control brought about by the diversity in capital equity; w Management philosophy, structure and tools;

w Organizational culture and interventions: orientation seminars, training, etc.; w Organizational effectiveness and tools: organizational development (OD), HRM, organizational behavior (OB) tools; w The role of labor laws and policies in defining company policies especially with respect to workers rights.

Case study: Opening up the Philippine professions to foreigners The test of convergence is highlighted in the current efforts to promote the opening up of the practice of Philippine professions to foreigners, in the context of the Constitution and related laws, and its strategic interface with the labor market.

Article XII, Section 12 of the Philippine Constitution of 1987 provides as follows: "... xxx...The practice of all continued on page 3

UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014 3

Photos from Wikicommons

CONVERGENCE IN WORK SYSTEMS... continued from page 2 professions in the Philippines shall be limited to Filipino citizens, save in cases prescribed by law." Other provisions of the Philippine Constitution provide for “...the sustained development of a reservoir of national talents consisting of Filipino scientists, entrepreneurs, professionals, managers, high level technical manpower, and skilled workers..." (Article XII, Section 1) In pursuit of this Constitutional mandate, existing policy provides that: "The State recognizes the important role of professionals in nation-building and, towards this end, promotes the sustained development of a reservoir of professionals whose competence has been determined by honest and credible licensure examinations and whose standards of professional service and practice are internationally recognized and considered world-class brought about the regulatory measures, programs and activities that foster professional growth and advancement." (Section 2. Statement of Policy, Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Modernization Act of 2000, R.A. No. 8981) In the spirit of the provisions of the Constitution, Articles 40, 41 & 42 of the Philippine Labor Code (PLC) requiring employment permits for non-resident aliens remain in place.

While the practice of professions is primarily reserved for Filipino

citizens, exceptions are recognized, based on existing laws mandating the professional regulatory boards, which provide for both individual and corporate business practice of professions.

There are 46 laws that regulate Philippine professions, in addition to the practice of law, which is regulated by the Philippine Supreme Court.

There is diversity of the rules and regulations regarding ownership and control. Accredited specialty boards exist for certain professions such as medicine and dentistry.

The following professional regulatory laws do not provide for reciprocity in allowing foreigners to practice their profession: w Criminology: R.A. No. 6506 (An Act Creating the Board of Examiners for Criminologists in the Philippines and for other Purposes); w Forestry: R.A. No. 6239 (The Forestry Profession Law); w Pharmacy: R.A. No. 5921 (An Act Regulating the Practice of Pharmacy and Setting Standards of Pharmaceutical Education in the Philippines and for other Purposes); and w Radio Technology: R.A. No. 7431 (Radiologic Technology Act of 1992) w Law: the practice of law is regulated by the Supreme Court.

The following professional regulatory law does not provide for Special Temporary Permit (STP): w Pharmacy: R.A. No. 5921 (An

Act Regulating the Practice of Pharmacy and Setting Standards of Pharmaceutical Education in the Philippines and for other Purposes) There are existing laws, rules and regulations on the registration of foreign professionals to enable them to practice in the Philippines. Many of the professional regulatory laws also provide for reciprocity. Foreign professionals are allowed limited practice by virtue of Special Temporary Permits (STPs), which fall within these exceptions.

The Philippines has entered into commitments through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS), among others. The Philippines also has Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with other ASEAN countries which include the health professions (nursing, dentistry, etc.); accountancy; engineering; and architectural services. These are existing arrangements which affirm and bolster the country’s direction towards liberalizing the professional services.

Labor market pressures: Supply and demand of professionals As a force of convergence, the foreign chambers of commerce in the Philippines have lobbied for the removal of the practice of professions from the Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL). They have also requested action on the liberalisation of the entry of foreign managers and professionals into the Philippines.

There is also a pending proposal to

repeal the requirement of reciprocity for foreign professionals to practice in the Philippines. While all other laws, regulations and requirements for the individual practice of professions remain in force, there would be important implications such as equal treatment of both Filipino and foreign professionals in registration and processing requirements, including the ownership and control of enterprises which would be channels of investment for the corporate practice of professions.

It is important to distinguish between foreign and local or domestic labor market effects, in terms of the surpluses or shortages for certain skills and occupations. Many professional occupations have niches in highly globalized industries, such as shipping crew (both officers and ordinary seafarers), airline pilots and crew, health care, finance, engineering, architecture, and the like.

Elasticity of demand refers to the response of employers to hire more or less a certain group of skills or occupations, depending on changes in pay rates and other compensation.

Elasticity of supply refers to the response of professionals or skilled workers to changes in pay rates and other compensation.

Skills refer to both the ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/ or people (interpersonal skills). Skills continued on page 8

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FUNDING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY... continued from page 1

Teofilo A. Abrajano

agree to; it is something we need.

What I will specifically address is the strategy for funding science and technology in educational institutions, a subject that I have a fair bit of experience on as a former senior executive at the US National Science Foundation and now the Director of the Office of Competitive Research Funds at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

the tree, but by building substantive and sustainable partnerships.

This approach to enriching, diversifying and linking strengths and expertise serves to lead to ecosystem productivity and stability. The call for ASEAN integration in education and research is one such example of a path to enable nations and universities to cross-utilize talent and resources— indeed by treating the knowledge and innovation enterprise as an ecosystem.

These partnerships must exist at all scales of the system, beginning with strategic collaborations at the country level—from integration of

stakeholder input and locating adequate resources. Imposing extraneous requirements is most certain to discourage buy in and impede participation and collaboration.

In his recent Nature article entitled “The Fourth Age of Research,” J. Adams exalted the essentiality of global collaborative partnerships. An earlier Royal Society report likewise concluded that international research collaboration is crucial to all countries and educational institutions. The Philippines must pay cognizance to these truths in its science funding strategy beyond laissez-faire, and ASEAN integration is the first step towards a win-win solution to the resource requirements of today’s global innovation competition. Participating in these partnerships, however, requires that we do not surrender our ability to create knowledge through basic research. Excellence will always seek excellence and our attractiveness as serious partners in these collaborations requires that we are active creators of knowledge.

Not only does global partnership require it, basic research is essential for the training of our future innovators.

-------------------Dr. Teofilo A. Abrajano, Jr. is the director of the Office of Competitive Research Funds at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He holds a PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University, and finished his BS in Geology from UP. He received the UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005. Email him at Teofilo.Abrajano@KAUST.EDU.SA. Photo from Dr. Abrajano

In the former capacity, I helped draft the latest NSF Strategic Plan, which charted the US approach to transforming the frontiers of science, stimulating innovation and addressing societal needs through science and technology (http://www.nsf.gov/about/performance/strategic_plan.jsp). In my present capacity at KAUST, I oversee the design and implementation of the University’s strategy for achieving its ambitious goals of becoming a global leader in research and innovation and catalyzing and diversifying the Saudi economy.

I recognize that the Philippines and other ASEAN countries are quite unlike the US and Saudi Arabia, but let me point out elements of the research and education funding strategy that should be relevant in every country context, including ASEAN countries: (1) the essential role of basic research, (2) the urgency of community- and country-wide integration and (3) the need for international partnerships.

The goals of funding science are to transform knowledge and to bring about a positive impact on people’s lives through discovery and innovation. Some mistakenly assume, however, that these two objectives are separately achievable—the former by supporting basic research, and the lat-

ter by supporting applied or targeted research.

Although never articulated as such, some national science funding strategies, based on where the money is allocated or spent, clearly consider basic research as a luxury they can ill afford. Such a premise for developing a national strategy for science investment is patently shortsighted and one dimensional, and this is a serious detriment for sustaining a nation’s knowledge ecosystem and global competitiveness.

The assumption that knowledge application can be divorced from knowledge creation is false. This is precisely the reason why we have come to describe research environments as knowledge/innovation ecosystems; opting to forego basic research is akin to suggesting that we can do without the ecosystem life-support.

There is no choice to be made between keeping the soil or the plant, or sacrificing the root for the sake of the rest of the tree. Knowledge

Abrajano (center) talks with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology President Jean Lou Chameau (left) and Prof. John Archer (right) during a student poster session in a symposium Abrajano hosted at KAUST.

creation and utilization is a continuum in multiple dimensions (Pasteur Quadrant, e.g.,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pasteur's_quadrant), and a weak basic research posture necessarily harms our ability to compete in identifying the next big leap in technological innovation. Basic research is to application as sin is to confession.

The dilemma of limited resources matched against a great demand for innovative solutions to urgent problems faced by many ASEAN countries is solved not by severing the roots from

education and research strategy of the university with the local community and the private sector to the sort of structured national framework that is a prerequisite for compliance with the ASEAN regional framework. I must warn, however, that these partnerships work best when they are organically developed by the principal investigators and educators, not when they are bureaucratically imposed from above.

Those charged with formulating these frameworks must focus on “enabling strategies,” including maximizing

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SHARING LESSONS LEARNED... continued from page 1

Luís María R. Calingo

ured professor and academic senator.

At that time, Fresno State was the agricultural campus of the California State University system. As “the only game in town,” we had no difficulty recruiting students and attracting donors. We did not even have to recruit international or out-of-state students—the perfect condition for incubating institutional inertia.

Since strategic planning was my doctoral specialization, my dean asked me to coordinate my department’s and our school’s strategic planning processes. As we were conducting strategic planning, we saw internationalization as the catalyst for bringing the school to a higher level of distinctiveness and the enabler for recruiting world-class faculty. The perfect storm arrived when AACSB (the business school’s accrediting body) mandated all business schools to internationalize the curriculum. These efforts led to the business school spearheading the crafting of the university’s Mission Statement for International Education, which would serve as the big tent for Fresno State’s internationalization initiatives. As academic senator, I participated in developing that mission statement, which the academic senate eventually endorsed and the president approved in the springof 1986. You may find a copy

holder consultations and should represent to the world how the university defines comprehensive internationalization.

At around 1988/1989, our business school began thinking of ways by which we could introduce our school into the international community of scholars. This gave rise to the design to organize and support an annual Asia Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues. The first conference was held at Fresno State in October 1989 and attracted 150 scholars and practitioners from 96 institutions and 17 countries to participate, discuss, and share their experiences in harmonizing international accounting practices in the Asia Pacific region.

During my deanship, we decided that the best way to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the fledgling conference was to hold the annual conference in different venues in the Asia Pacific region and to secure an institutional partner as co-host of each conference. The conference is now on its 26th year and has been hosted by many business schools through the Asia Pacific region. You may see details of the conference at http://apconference. org/ Lesson #2: Raise the visibility of your school in the international community of scholars-teachers

this happen. This was totally new territory for the CSU, which meant that there were no rules and regulations governing the offering of degree programs overseas (let alone outside state borders). Over a two-year period, I negotiated and secured approvals from Fresno State Academic Senate, the system-wide Chancellor’s Office, and WASC (Fresno State’s accrediting body) before receiving the authority to negotiate with overseas partners. I dealt not only with risk-averse bureaucrats who lacked international awareness, but also with the then-prevailing thinking that public universities were created to educate local residents and not foreign nationals in other countries.

Regrettably, a lot of valuable time was lost during these negotiations that, by the time we received our authorizations, our more agile competitors have beaten us in the market.

Lessons #3: Before launching pioneering international programs and going through the formal approval processes, secure the buy-in of your institution’s highest executive. If your chief executive is not willing to join you in crossing a bridge while it is being built, don’t waste your time.

During the period 1993 to 1996, I took a sabbatical to join the business school at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore’s second public university, as one of its founding faculty members. I developed personal relationships with academicians from Singapore, Malaysia, China, and other Asian countries. These relationships proved beneficial in my future leadership positions.

From 2002 to 2006, I introduced our undergraduate business programs to foreign locations, specifically in Malaysia, Singapore, and China. I was then dean of the business school at CSU Long Beach, which, at that time, was America’s eighth largest business school. Our objective was to recapture the international student enrollment that we lost after 9/11. By this time, the CSU system has had some experience in offering MBA programs overseas, but not undergraduate programs. Using the lessons that I learned from Calingo (center) receives his plaque as UPAA Alumni Awardee during the UPAA General Homecoming and Reunion in June my Fresno State years and 2014. With him are UP President Alfredo Pascual (right) and UPAA President Ponciano Rivera. using the contacts I developed in Singapore, I successfully launched the programs in Malaysia by organizing or collaborating of this mission statement at http:// and Singapore and obtained accrediin scholarly events to which the www.fresnostate.edu/academics/aps/ tation approval for them. The Singainternational community would be documents/apm/276.pdf. pore program became the destination invited.

Lesson #1: The starting point of program for students from ASEAN From 1990 to 1993, our business internationalizing the university is countries, while students from the school decided to introduce our a mission statement, to which fuMiddle East populated the Malaysia MBA program to foreign locations, ture internationalization initiatives program. I also successfully negotispecifically Taipei, Hong Kong, and should be aligned. This statement continued on page 8 Singapore, and I was tasked to make should be the product of stake-

6 UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014

General Education at Globalisasyon

Isip, Salita at Gawa Para Kanino?

Arbeen Acuña

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pektado ang UP sa isterya ng internasyonalisasyon. Wika nga ni Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs Marilou Nicolas, darating ang integrasyon sa Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) sa 2015, sa ayaw natin at sa gusto. Susi sa pakikisama sa mga karatig-rehiyon sa Asya ang pagayon at paglapat ng General Education Program (GEP) sa pangangailangan ng internasyonal na komunidad at pag-angkop sa programang K to 12 sa batayang edukasyon.

Programa at Mga Panukala Kasama sa mga ipinirisintang dokumento ni Nicolas sa Expanded GE Committee Workshop sa Subic noong ika-21 hanggang-23 ng Mayo ang tsart na nagkukumpara sa Revitalized General Education Program (RGEP) Hybrid at bagong GEP. Layunin ng naturang palihan, ayon kay Nicolas, na pagsamahin at pangasiwaan ang “harmonized” na mga balangkas ng GE, pero maaaring bumatay ang mga constituent unit (CU) sa niche nila; at nagtakda rin ang palihan ng mga CU na punong-abala sa bawat asignatura. Paglilinaw pa niya, hindi madadagdagan o mababawasan ang mga taon ng pag-aaral sa kolehiyo, kahit magiging 30-yunit GE na lang sa bagong GEP (katumbas ng isang akademikong taon) mula sa dating 45 unit sa RGEP, dahil ilalaan sa major ang natitirang tatlong taon.

Asignaturang walang elektib ang gusto ni UP President Alfredo Pascual, ayon kay Nicolas. Sa layunin naman, hindi tinanggal sa bagong GEP ang dating nasa RGEP: pagpapalawak ng larangang intelektwal at kultural; at pagpapayabong ng pagkatig sa nasyonalismong binabalanse ng pagpapahalaga sa internasyonalismo. Idinagdag lang sa bagong GEP ang pagpapalalim ng kapasidad sa integrasyon ng kaalaman at kasanayan (knowledge and skill); at pagkintal ng “passion for life-long learning.”

Simula 1987 pa nagtuturo ng GE subject ang kasalukuyang tagapangulo ng Diliman GE Committee at miyembro ng UP Diliman GE Committee na si Prop.

Robin Daniel Rivera ng Department of Art Studies. Sa panayam ng UP Forum sinabi niyang noong 2009, muli nilang pinag-aralan ang RGEP at pinagtibay ang taunang kumperensya hinggil dito noong 2011. Sa kauna-unahang kumperensya, muling ipinakilala ang ilang asignaturang required GE, at ito ang tinaguriang Diliman “Hybrid” GEP, na siyang magsisilbing paunang hakbang para sa potensyal na pagbabago—at pagrerepaso sa kalaunan.

Binubuo ng 45 yunit ang “Hybrid” GE, 15 yunit ang kukunin sa bawat larangan (Arts & Humanities o AH, Social Sciences & Philosophy o SSP at Math, Science & Technology o MST): sa AH, dalawa ang elektib at tatlo ang required (English 10, Filipino 40, Communication 3); sa SSP, tatlo ang elektib, dalawa ang required (Kasaysayan 1, Philosophy 1); at sa MST, tatlo ang elektib at required ang isang Math GE at ang STS. Kinailangan ding tugunan ang mga eksternal na pagbabago, sabi ni Rivera, tulad ng (1) programang K to 12 ng Departamento ng Edukasyon (DepEd); (2) bagong GEP at ng College Readiness Standards (CRS) ng Commission on Higher Education (CHED); (3) integrasyong ASEAN; at (4) panukalang GEP ng UP System, na tinagurian niyang “System 8.” Kabilang naman sa unang panukalang ito (Setyembre 2013) ang 36 yunit: 12 elektib at 24 batayang yunit na katumbas ng walong asignatura: (1) Ethics; (2) Self and Society; (3) Mathematics, Culture and Society; (4) Science Technology and Society; (5) Living Art and Culture; (6) Living Systems; (7) Life and Works of Rizal; at (8) Understanding the Physical Universe.

Oktubre 2013, isang buwan makalipas ang unang panukala, hinapag ni dating Chancellor Caesar Saloma ang planong may anim na yugto: (1) pagtatag ng UPD GE Center; (2) pagdaraos ng mga konsultasyon; (3) pagpapaunlad ng mga kurikulum; (4) pilot-tesing; (5) Curriculum Approvals; at (6) program roll-out sa 2018, sa pagpasok ng unang mga nagsipagtapos sa ilalim ng programang K to 12.

Sa palihan ng Diliman, pinag-usapan ang rationale ng deadline para sa bagong GEP. Sa kabila ng kagustuhan ng Diliman na repasuhin ang programa, hindi nais madaliin ang proseso kaya naghapag si Rivera ng pagpapaunlad ng GEP na maisasakatuparan makalipas ang limang taon. Ayon kay Rivera, iminungkahi ng mga CU ang ilang pagbabago tulad ng pagdaragdag ng kurso sa komunikasyon at kasaysayan at pagpapanumbalik ng asignaturang Rizal. Hindi rin agad nagkasundo sa pamagat ng mga batayang kurso at nakukulangan ang mga CU sa panahong ibinigay ng UP System. Magpapatuloy ang UP Diliman sa itutuloy sa pahina 12

UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014 7

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Dangal at Husay Mula sa Kawani, Para sa Kawani Tungong Internasyonalisasyon

ungkulin ng Campus Maintenance Office (CMO) ang pangalagaan ang mga gusali at pisikal na kapaligiran ng UP Diliman. Isang sangay nito ang Grounds Service and Arboretum Division (GSAD). Bahagi ng komprehensibong gawain nito ang pangangalaga ng park at garden, nursery at arboretum at beautification at landscaping.

Ang mga serbisyong ito ay mahigit dalawang dekada nang trabaho ni Mang Rogelio. Siya ay regular na manggagawa na may salary grade 4 (sagad). Sa kakapusan ng sahod, kabikabila ang kanyang loan na malaking bahagi ng mga kaltas sa kaniyang sahod. Kung kaya may take-home pay na lamang siya na Php400-600 kada linggo.

Ilang taon na lamang ay magreretiro na si Mang Rogelio. Marahil ang bagong kaalamang bunga ng kasalukuyang pag-aaral at pag-eeksperimento sa pagpapausbong ng Mirasol sa tag-ulan ay magiging malaking ambag lalo na ngayong nasa kamay ng mga manggagawang tulad niya ang posibilidad na ang Mirasol ay para rin sa mga magtatapos ng Hunyo.

Sariwa pa sa alaala ni Joy nang magtapos siyang cum laude sa Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikang Pilipinas ng Kolehiyo ng Arte at Literatura sa UP Diliman noong nakaraang taon. Gaya rin ng alaala ng kaniyang unang trabaho, ang mga karanasan niya bilang isang community development officer (CDO) ng Office of Community Relations (OCR). Para kay Joy, ang muling pagkakaroon ng dinamikong ugnayan ng mga sektor at ng Unibersidad ay susi sa tagumpay ng kanilang opisina. Halimbawa nito ang pagpapaunlad ng sektor ng transportasyon upang matiyak ang kaligtasan ng mga pasahero sa mga pampublikong sasakyan sa loob ng kampus.

Hindi iniinda ang dami ng trabahong minsa’y inaabot hanggang Sabado at Linggo ang mga isinasagawang capacity-building tulad nang sa mga drayber ng pampublikong sasakyan. Bilang isang non-UP contractual na walang natatanggap na anumang benepisyo, umaasa lamang siya sa take-home pay na Php13,000 kada buwan. Mag-iisang taon na dapat siya sa trabaho pagsapit ng Hunyo, at sa kalauna’y mananatili na lamang na mga hindi malilimutang alaala para sa tulad niyang na-endo sa trabaho, sa unang pagkakataon.

Kawaning Pang-edukasyon Sina Mang Rogelio at Joy ay halimbawa ng mga kawaning natatangi sa iba pang empleyadong pampamahalaan dahil sila ay nakapaloob sa pang-edukasyong sangay nito. Bagamat hindi pangunahing gawain ang pagtuturo, ang kanilang prakti-

Stephanie S. Cabigao

kang nakatuon sa pananaliksik, administratibo, pangkalusugan, seguridad, kalinisan, at iba pang serbisyo ay mahalaga sa pang-araw-araw na operasyon ng UP. Kaiba sa iba pang mga SUC, ang UP ay may pambansang saklaw, kaya inaasahang ito’y may malawak na sakop at kinapapalooban ng maunlad at umuunlad pang mga programa, kung kaya nanganganak ito ng mga bagong opisina na kailangan ng karagdagang serbisyo. Kailangan ng malalaking institusyon tulad ng UP ang araw-araw at tuluy-tuloy na operasyon upang manatiling dinamiko, maayos at ligtas ang bawat kampus nito.

Bilang pangunahing ahensyang pang-edukasyon ng gobyerno, hindi lamang mga guro at REPS ang kailangan nito kundi pati mga taong may kasanayang magtitiyak sa tamang proseso ng mga gawain. Kung kaya mahalaga ang serbisyo ng mga kawaning tulad ng administrative officer, administrative aid, clerk, at messenger.

Batay sa datos ng Plantilla 2012 ng All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU), ang UP system ay may 12,572 empleyadong guro, REPS at kawani. Ang 62 porsyento nito ay binubuo ng 7,793 regular o kawaning may plantilla tulad ni Mang Rogelio. Ang tatlo sa may malalaking bilang ng mga kawani ay makikita sa mga yunit na may gawaing pangkalusugan, ang UP-PGH na may 3,570 kawani; at sa malalaking kampus tulad ng Diliman na may 1,453 at Los Banos na may tinatayang 1,438 kawani.

Ngunit bukod sa kanila ay may mga empleyado rin ang UP tulad ni Joy na nagbibigay ng pantay na serbisyo ngunit naiiba ang katangian tulad ng mga lecturer, UP contractual, non-UP contractual, agency-hired, non-government workers at job order. Maliban sa UP contractual, ang mga ito ay walang natatanggap na benepisyo at umaasa lamang sa kanilang sahod. Sa 12,572 na mga empleyado, 3,422 o 27.22 porsyento nito ay ang tulad nila. Batay naman sa sistema ng kanilang appointment, 1,432 nito ay mga kawani. Sa pagsusuri ng AUPAEU, mahigit isa sa limang empleyado ang mga kontraktwal sa UP. itutuloy sa pahina 14

Artwork by Tilde Acuña

8 UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014

CONVERGENCE IN WORK SYSTEMS... continued from page 3 are acquired through training, and certification. Skills could be generic to the industry, enabling workers to move from one firm to another; or firm-specific acquired through onthe-job training (OJT). Blue collar workers are usually referred to as skilled labor, while professionals who are white collar workers have certified competencies and expertise, acquired through formal education and licensure.

Skills occupational shortage or surplus is the interaction between labor demand and supply, within a specific time frame and geographic space.

Shortage or surplus is also a function of compensation and working conditions, on the supply side. Labor supply depends on compensation and working conditions, and other terms and conditions of the contract of services. Critical skills such as rural health professionals for instance have inelastic demand, meaning poor and rural communities need the doctors, nurses and other health practitioners, regardless of fees for professional services. On the other hand, certain professions such as nurses, marine transport or aircraft mechanics have continued on page 9

Photos from Wikicommons

ated the financial model for these programs with the CSU Chancellor’s Office, which created a stream of net income to the business school. Today, these programs are no longer operational as the restrictions on the inflow of international students have been relaxed.

Lesson # 4: Being a fast second is an appropriate strategy if you’re dealing with a riskaverse institutional culture. External degree programs should be self-supporting, and you should ensure that no tax-funded funds are used to subsidize these programs.

From 2007 to 2010, as business dean and then provost at Dominican University of California, I negotiated 2+2 degree articulation and transfer admission (“twinning”) agreements with business schools in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Crafting these articulation agreements is a time-consuming process; figure about six months per degree program. Our goal was to increase our population of international students from four percent to ten percent of the total population. Cognizant that many international students transfer to US universities from the two-year community colleges, we first reformed our General Education curriculum to make our university transfer-friendly. Twinning programs had the potential of enabling international students to receive a US bachelor’s degree at a fraction of the cost that they would have paid for four years of education in US soil. Despite this value proposition, of these three institutions, only the university in Thailand became a feeder school. The main barrier to participation in the twinning programs was the cost of US education.

Lesson #5: A transfer-friendly lower-division curriculum enables mobility of students who might wish to transfer to your school. Articulation is a time-consuming process; therefore, conduct a thorough due-diligence of the attractiveness and affordability of your degree programs to students from prospective overseas partners.

From 2009 to 2012, as provost, I centralized all activities pertaining to international students under one office—the Office of Internationalization and Global Education (OIGE).

OIGE initially had a staff of 3.5 FTE consisting of a full-time director, a full-time international student advisor, one half-time coordinator, and one administrative assistant.

The international student advisor dealt with admissions, legal, and regulatory requirements, while the coordinator dealt with international student experiences. You may find more information about this unit at: http://www. dominican.edu/admissions/ international Lesson # 6: There should be a university infrastructure for internationalization. Someone should be accountable for the implementation of comprehensive internationalization. The university should ensure that international students obtain not only good education but also have a memorable campus experience.

From 2011 to the present, as provost and president, I have actively developed shortterm, study-abroad programs for students from overseas partners. At Dominican University of California, we hosted MBA students from Thammasat University every summer where they studied contemporary management issues at Stanford University one week and then sustainable entrepreneurship at Dominican the next week. Woodbury University recently hosted a Los Angeles fashion and business boot camp for students from Miriam College over a two-week period. These were income-generating programs that also created a level of internationalization in our constituent schools. They also enable confidence-building between educational partners, especially given the difficulty of launching the more aggressive twinning programs.

Lesson # 7: Hosting a short-term, study-abroad course is an excellent way to build confidence with overseas educational partners.

Looking back at these lessons learned and the obstacles that my school and I had to overcome on our way to internationalization, it is important that the academic leader championing comprehensive internationalization should include patience and tolerance for ambiguity among his or her virtues. This is not the job for a risk-averse, impatient, short-term-oriented dean, provost, or president. As the late Reverend William Shedd wrote, “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” Throughout my academic administrative career, I have probably signed close to twenty agreements with overseas schools, of which only five really got off the ground. A 25-percent success rate is an intelligent risk in the pursuit of comprehensive internationalization. With these words, I wish you the best as you consider how to internationalize your department, school, college, or university.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. (Henry Ford) -------------------Dr. Luis Maria R. Calingo is a UPAA 2014 Alumni Awardee for Outstanding Achievement. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and MBA in Strategic Planning and Policy from the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his BS in Industrial Engineering and MA in Urban and Regional Planning from UP. At present, he is the president of Woodbury University in Burbank, California. Email him at Luis.Calingo@woodbury.edu.

Photos from Wikicommons

SHARING LESSONS LEARNED... continued from page 5

UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014 9

CONVERGENCE IN WORK SYSTEMS... continued from page 8 high supply elasticity—meaning more young people are willing to work for these professions due to the high compensation offered in foreign countries.

The Philippines has specific needs in terms of critical skills and occupations to serve the nation, in both the public and private sector. Examples include rural health professionals.

These needs are over and above the requirements of industry. The Constitutional mandate is to support and promote “...the sustained development of a reservoir of national talents

to the nationality requirement.

Sound labor market policies should include policies to put in place supportive human resource development programs, such as competency skills training, upgrading and retooling.

These include career or occupational guidance programs for job seekers, with timely access to information on the availability and location of job vacancies.

Conclusions: Towards a new social contract The interdependence of social and

and social dialogue with producers and consumers, as well as business, workers, employers and government are keys to eliminating the social tensions from the inequalities from regional integration.

At the same time, the ASEAN community, through their people’s organizations, need to be fully provided with the fundamental awareness for them to directly benefit from the regional integration, with guarantees for the exercise of rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, to improve wages, health and safety, job security and other working conditions. Labor and employment

strong and sustainable economies together, to guarantee the elimination of social and income inequalities, green-friendly competitive opportunities for entrepreneurship, mutually beneficial and progressive trade and business investments to create decent and rewarding jobs.

With people-to-people cooperation, a strong and prosperous ASEAN of diverse cultures and communities would be a reality through shared values and expectations of the people who are producers and consumers in the real economy, including workers, employers, and economic and business leaders who with their hard

relations need to be continuously improved, through harmonized labor laws, equal opportunities for employment, skills development, fair procedures for the settlement of labor disputes, and compensation.

The demand for greater people-topeople solidarity comes along with the “mixed noodles” of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements between Asian countries (Japan, China, and Korea; ASEAN), with India, Europe, the United States, Australia, and other emerging economies. Some of the FTAs had provisions on labor exchange, referred to as “the movement of natural persons,” including skilled people.

A new social contract is built on the rational expectation that ASEAN peoples through their community and people organizations are able to build

work are rewarded with better jobs, higher incomes, social protection and improved lives with sustainable, green economies. With the commitment and hard work of the diverse peoples and cultures of ASEAN, this vision should be a reality soon.

-------------------The ideas expressed in this article are the author’s own personal views, and are not the official position of the UP. Dr. Amante is vice-president for Administration and professor, School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SoLAIR), University of the Philippines. He earned his BA in Economics from UP, MA in Policy Economics from the University of Illinois, and PhD in Business and Commerce, major in Industrial Relations, from Keio University in Tokyo. Email him at maragtas.amante@gmail.com.

Amante (seated at the table, 3rd from right) joins a panel of speakers during the Regional Discussion on the ASEAN Internship Program held at the UP Institute of Small-Scale Industries Teodoro Room on January 10, 2014. In photo at right, Ms. Muhammad Nasir Hilvati, Deputy Director of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, addresses the audience.

consisting of Filipino scientists, entrepreneurs, professionals, managers, high level technical manpower, and skilled workers.”

Filipino professionals who used to practice in foreign countries are highly specialized. These Filipino professional experts may decide to go home and practice in the Philippines. Under current regulations, they cannot practice their high level profession in the Philippines since they have not taken the PRC board exams. There is a need to provide for exemptions for these cases. Visiting professors who are also high level professionals and experts in academe could practice their profession in the Philippines.

The STPs are only for foreigners. But Filipinos who are from abroad, and decide to be returning scientists or experts (“balik-scientist”) under the DOST program could not be given STPs to practice their professions due

economic systems, and mediated by new technology influence the institutions, processes and outcomes of such integration, are becoming more evident as forces of convergence in work systems, including the ASEAN. International and transnational linkages will continue to grow but even more important, even as national and purely domestic policies and practices will need to adjust to the growing size and scope of an integrating global economy. In Asia, especially among the “emerging economies,” the shift in framework and processes at the workplace may indicate a much more significant, and dynamic field.

With increasing regional economic integration especially in ASEAN, there is a demand for best practices in the priority areas of trade, business, including labor and employment relations. People to people cooperation

10 UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014

THE UP FORUM ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON ASEAN INTEGRATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION

Q.

H ow ready is hi 2015?

What policy refo HE competitiv community?

Rex Victor O. Cruz, PhD Chancellor UP Los Baños

T

he readiness of Philippine higher education for Asean 2015 can be assessed in terms of the competitiveness of the country’s higher education institutions (HEIs) as institutions of choice for students from other countries in the region. Come 2015 our HEIs must increase their competitiveness in attracting international students, at least 300,000 of them, from the region (http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx).

We need to be able to compete with Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia who capture more than 20,000 international students within the region. Latest estimates show that we only have about 5,000 international students in 2014, of which less than 500 are from Asean countries.

One of the vital elements of competitiveness is the kind and quality of programs. To be attractive, programs need to be responsive and relevant to the current and emerging national, regional and international development goals. These include food security and safety, sustainable and green energy, biodiversity conservation and natural resources, technological innovations, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, use of English as a medium of business transactions, and increasing appreciation for the contribution of culture and arts to sustainable development.

Equally critical is the quality of teachers (i.e., top caliber multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and multi-national faculty and staff), teaching and research facilities, and research programs. The quality of living conditions, including cost of living and peace and security; language(s) spoken; quality of environment; and access to basic services are also important factors to insure the competitiveness of our HEIs. On paper many of our older and established programs such as agriculture, forestry, veterinary medicine, environmental management, natural and life sciences, engineering, and medical sciences along with some of our newer programs such as computer science, biotechnology and information technology, are decent enough to compete with those of other ASEAN HEIs. These programs also boast of competent professors and researchers who are highly regarded locally and internationally. We also have a distinct advantage with English as our medium of instruction.

The affordability of education in the Philippines could outweigh the deterring effects of peace and security issues in some parts of the country and the unnecessary inconvenience arising from red tape in transacting business with government agencies.

The competitiveness of our programs and teachers notwithstanding, in reality, we lag behind our Asean neighbors in attracting international students. It is conceivable that by 2015 the competitiveness of our HEIs will continue to be limited by the state and quality of our physical and infrastructural assets for teaching and research. Government subsidy to HEIs over the past two years is still insufficient to significantly modernize teaching and research facilities that are largely dilapidated, ill-maintained

and inadequate. We might lose some of our best professors and researchers to our Asean counterparts if we are unable to provide a competitive package of remuneration and incentives to keep them.

Obviously we have a lot of ground to cover to catch up with our ASEAN neighbors. Instituting several policy reforms will be key to improving the competitiveness of our HEIs. These are: • Substantially increase government investments in strategically selected centers of excellence for modernization of teaching and laboratory facilities as well as accommodation, connectivity and other vital support facilities; upgrade salaries and other incentives for faculty and support staff.

• Rationalize accounting and auditing policies to suit the needs of HEIs for swift and prompt procurement of vital equipment, supplies and services. Current regulations continue to impede the procurement process for research, usually impinging on the timely implementation of research activities.

• Strengthen and strictly implement policies on accreditation and monitoring of HEIs and programs to insure quality and competitiveness.

• Create a policy to facilitate the accreditation of HEIs and programs by international bodies. Sufficient support must be provided to HEIs to accelerate their compliance to all requirements for accreditation.

• Remove policy impediments for hiring foreign nationals as regular members of the faculty to enable HEIs to recruit high profile international professors and researchers.

• Review credit transfer policy to increase the flexibility of accepting international students as transferees and for credit of units earned by local students in foreign HEIs through exchange, joint, dual and sandwich degree programs.

• Revise immigration policies and procedures governing international students to reduce red tape and significantly shorten the period of processing visa and related documents.

-------------------Chancellor Rex Cruz earned his BS and MS in Forestry from UP, and PhD in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona. Email him at rocruz@up.edu.ph.

UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014 11

THE UP FORUM ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON ASEAN INTEGRATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION

gher education for ASEAN

orms are needed to make e in an ASEAN regional

Lily Freida T. Macabangun-Milla, LLB Director III International Affairs Staff Commission on Higher Education

T

o make ASEAN Member States’ national higher education sectors and the region’s whole higher education system ready and competitive for ASEAN 2015 and beyond, a lot of efforts has been made by ASEAN Member States individually and as a region.

For the Commission, the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 Strategy and Action Plan for Philippine Higher Education (HESAP) will be the main instrument in determining necessary policy reforms for the Philippine HE system in light of AEC 2015.

The Action Plan has three dimensions: (1) macro-economic policies, (2) the HEIs, and (3) the industry. Below are the initial considerations for drafting the HE-SAP: 1. The presence of a compelling need to ensure that the country benefits from the integration process; 2. The changes economic integration will bring to the way we deliver higher education; 3. The status of the Philippine HE sector vis-à-vis its fellow ASEAN members; 4. The imperative to determine strategies for participation in the AEC initiatives for HE aligned with the national strategy; and 5. The importance of consolidating and enhancing present HE reforms in the context of the AEC. Private institutions from NCR that are members of the University Mobility for Asia and the Pacific (UMAP), ASEAN International Mobility for Students (AIMS), and the ASEAN University Network (AUN) were invited to the first Focus Group Discussion (FGD). For the second FGD, state universities and colleges (SUCs) were represented by the Regional Philippine Association of SUCs (PASUC) chairpersons. Organizations building industry-academe linkages were invited to the third FGD. CHED aims to consult government offices for the fourth FGD. Meanwhile the following are ASEAN’s initiatives in HE. Supported by CHED, they address challenges faced by the ASEAN higher education sector: 1. ASEAN University Network- AUN was established as a response to ASEAN Member States’ vision for integration by helping in “hasten(ing) the solidarity and development of a regional identity through the promotion of human resource development to further strengthen the existing network of leading universities and institutions of higher learning in the region.”

AUN is a network of 30 HEIs from 10 ASEAN countries.

This network has a lot of components that make up its sys-

tem, as well as various sub-networks which deal with specific fields. The most prominent sub-network will be the AUN Southeast Asia Engineering Education Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net)whose aim is to promote human resources development in the ASEAN engineering field and promote collaboration and solidarity between academics and professionals.

One of the most important components of AUN is the AUN Credit Transfer Scheme (ACTS). Its objective is “to create common mechanisms in facilitating the recognition of qualifications and increasing student and academic mobility in ASEAN.” 2. ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework - the AQRF is currently being designed to accommodate and support the various National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) of ASEAN countries to promote the recognition of qualifications, facilitate lifelong learning, credit transfer and learner mobility, among others.

The AQRF is currently a work in progress but is close to completion.

3. ASEAN International Mobility for Students Program - the AIMS Program is a platform for education cooperation among ASEAN countries. The fields of study/priority disciplines of the AIMS are: agriculture, hospitality and tourism, language and culture, international business, food science and technology, engineering and economics.

For student mobility programs like AIMS and AUN, credit transfer systems are essential. While AUN uses the ACTS as mentioned above, the AIMS Program utilizes the University Mobility for Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) Credit Transfer Scheme.

4. ASEAN Quality Assurance Network - the AQAN Project is currently overseen by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency. AQAN is open to accrediting agencies or agencies responsible for quality assurance of higher education.

AQAN concentrates on building the ASEAN Quality Assurance Framework for higher education through discussions and sharing of QA best practices and experiences.

Considering the aforesaid ASEAN-centered programs and networks, the main factors which significantly affect national HE sectors and the regional HE system are credit transfer schemes for student and professional mobility, qualifications referencing and compatibility, and quality assurance. These are where reforms are concentrated. AIMS, AUN, and AQRF all complement the region’s efforts to enhance quality assurance systems in the long run. QA is important in the achievement of a regional higher education space and thus, the importance of a regional QA framework is on the spotlight.

As to how ready the ASEAN HE system is for 2015, readiness can be measured by how close ASEAN is to accomplishing the establishment of these QA and Qualifications Referencing systems.

-------------------Atty. Lily Freida Milla earned her political science and law degrees from UP. Email her at lily.freida@gmail.com.

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pakikilahok sa mga palihan hinggil sa GE at sa naturang anim na hakbang, ayon kay Rivera, hindi bilang pagpayag sa orihinal na “System 8” pero bilang konsultasyon sa mga kasamahang guro sa ibang CU. Dagdag niya, sa kabila ng pagtutok ng administrasyon sa mga kasunduang may kinalaman sa integrasyon sa rehiyon (ng timog-silangang Asya), ang interes naman nilang mga akademiko ay pagpapayabong ng kaalaman at mga pedagohiya (o pamamaraan ng pagbabahagi ng kaalaman) na siyang magtutulak sa paglago sa mga erya nang higit pa sa ekonomiyang rehiyonal. “Walang kakulangan sa ganitong pagnanais sa mga edukador ng UP Diliman. (...) Pinabubulaanan nito ang akalang nagpapayaman lang ang mga guro sa overload teaching pay sa halip na sumabak sa pananaliksik. (...) Nakadepende sa pondong ilalaan ng administrasyon ng UP ang pagsabay ng pamantasan sa kalidad ng mga karatig-rehiyon sa Asya, kung mabibigyan ng kinakailangang rekurso ang mga guro sa GE man, propesyonal na pagsasanay, interaksyong pangkolehiyo o pananaliksik,” ayon kay Rivera sa Ingles.

Makikita ang mga sumusunod na asignatura sa tsart ni Nicolas: (1) History (Philippine History, Heritage and Culture); (2) Rizal (The Life and Works of Jose Rizal); (3) Living Art; (4) Communication; (5) Ethics; (6) Self & Society; (7) Mathematics, Culture and Society (Mathematics, Culture and Society); (8) Science, Technology and Society (STS); (9) Living Systems; at (10) Understanding the Physical Universe. Sa sampung asignatura, ang apat na may pamagat sa loob ng panaklong pa lamang ang may “harmonized” na balangkas, kasama ang kursong Rizal na dating PI 100.

Walang Filipino sa GEP Walang asignaturang Filipino sa GEP ng UP, na siyang magiging mainit na isyu dulot ng CHED Memorandum No. 20 Series of 2013 na nagtatanggal sa Filipino sa GE Curriculum (GEC).

Karaniwang maririnig sa mga nagnanais magpatanggal sa asignaturang Filipino ang pagtuturo nito sa huling mga baitang sa programang K to 12.

Kultura naman ang binigyang diin ni Nicolas: Pambansang identidad ang ating problema at hindi naman bawal magturo sa wikang Filipino.

Dagdag ni Nicolas, ituturo naman sa pangkulturang GE kung ano ba ang “Filipino.” Para sa kanya, hindi pagiging hindi nasyonalista ang hindi pagtuturo sa Filipino at mas mainam bigyang-diin ang kasaysayang kultural kaysa politikal para mahanap ang ating “national identity.”

Hindi sapat at limitado ang asignaturang Filipino sa programang K to 12 dahil lampas pa sa balarila at komunikasyon ang Filipino, para kay Prop.

Rommel Rodriguez, pambansang secretary-general ng All-UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU). “Sa kolehiyo, marami pang marapat matutunan ang mga mag-aaral [na papasok sa UP] hinggil sa Filipino bilang instrumento ng pananaliksik at panunuri sa lipunan, kasaysayan at kultura. (…) at hinggil sa iba’t ibang larangan ng Filipino, tulad ng wika, araling pilipino, panitikan, at malikhaing pagsulat.”

Mga Prototipo “Maski yung ‘Thai-ness’ itinuturo sa Thailand in English kasi nga may mga international students. Thais are one of the most nationalistic people in the world,” ani Nicolas. Pero iba ang kalagayan sa Indonesia at Malaysia, kung saan ang mga dayong estudyante ang dapat umangkop sa kultura ng naturang mga bansa. Ayon sa nilahad sa porum na Bantay Wikang Filipino ni DFPP Prop. Ramon Guillermo, pambansang presidente ng AUWAEU, labindalawang taon din ang batayang edukasyon—elementarya at sekundarya—sa Indonesia at Malaysia. Ganito rin sa Thailand.

Ayon kay Guillermo, maraming unibersidad sa Indonesia at Malaysia—na katumbas ng UP bilang state university—ang may batayang kurso sa bahasa (wika) na mandatory sa GEP. Mas maunlad ang mga naturang wika bilang wikang pambansa. Sa kani-kanilang Senado at Kongreso, kailangang humingi muna ng permiso bago magsalita ng Ingles dahil dapat maintindihan ng ordinaryong tao ang lehislasyon ng batas.

Ani Guillermo: “Kailangang igiit na iba ang katangian ng pag-aaral sa basic education at sa pag-aaral sa unibersidad. May mga espesipikong kasanayan sa pagpapaunlad sa Filipino bilang wikang intelektwal at wikang ginagamit sa siyentipikong larangan. Dahil sa mas atrasadong katangian ng wikang Filipino, palagay ko, lalong kailangan ng core course na wikang Pilipino sa ating core course sa kolehiyo.”

Sa parehong porum, ibinahagi ni Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Partylist Rep. Antonio Tinio ang “Recto Avenue” ng Indonesia, kung saan nagbebenta ng mga librong secondhand—ang pagkakaiba lang, nasa Bahasa ang mga ito, kabilang ang mga aklat sa agham, matematika, pilosopiya, maging mga best seller. Tatlo ang susing punto ni Tinio: (1) pagpapatunay sa antas ng akademikong diskurso sa mga unibersidad ng Indonesiang maunlad kumpara sa Pilipinas, sa kabila ng limitasyon dahil wala pang mga aklat sa hard science, law at engineering; (2) indikasyon ng kasiglahan ng gawaing pagsasalin sa akademya at sa kultura ng Indonesia, hindi tulad sa Pilipinas na pinakamaraming isinasalin sa show business at sa mass media; at (3) senyales ng masiglang produksyon ng libro, hindi tulad sa Pilipinas na import-dependent na nga sa maraming produkto, ganoon pa rin sa mga aklat.

Nagbalik-kasaysayan si Tinio: “ Noong 1987 ay nanguna ang UP at

nagdeklara si [former UP President] Jose Abueva: lahat ng kurso sa unibersidad ay ituro na sa Filipino—hindi lang panitikan at araling Pilipino, kundi matematika, siyensa, engineering, medicine, microbiology, lahat ng kurso, ganoon ang plano. Itinatag ang Sentro ng Wikang Filipino (SWF) para maisakatuparan ito; may fiveyear plan. Katulad ng binanggit ni [Guillermo], yun ang tinarget [natin tulad] ng Malaysia noong 1980s, kaya lang ano’ng nangyari sa patakaran? (…) Dumating ang globalisayson, noong panahon ni dating Pangulong Fidel Ramos. Philippines 2000: deregulation, liberalization, privatization at yung pagtutulak sa wikang Ingles bilang susi sa global competitiveness. Kaya binitiwan ng UP ang language policy. Noong panahon ni [former UP President] Francisco Nemenzo, nagkaroon ng devolution: ibinasura ang patakaran at mula noon ay paatras na at nasa depensiba na ang mga nagtataguyod ng wikang Pilipino.”

Dagdag pa niya, “Sa education system, revised basic education curriculum ang naging patakaran noong 2002. Binawasan yung mga minutes para sa wikang Filipino at para sa mga subject na itinuturo gamit ito under Makabayan. Noong panahon ni Gloria [Arroyo], EO 210 naman: kailangang gamitin ang Ingles bilang primary medium of instuction sa college. Naging English speaking, tapos magmumulta ka ‘pag gumamit ng Filipino. Itong pinakahuli[ng bigwas], ‘yung CHED memong magtatanggal sa Filipino sa GEC. Sa UP GEP may equivalent yan. System 8 o System 10? Essentially ganoon din, tatanggalin na ito as a required course. Last stand na ba ito ng Filipino?”

Ang Proyekto May tatlong implikasyon kung walang asignaturang Filipino sa GEP ng UP ayon kay Rodriguez: (1) binabalewala nito ang Patakarang Pangwika ng UP na inaprubahan ng Board of Regents noong Mayo 29, 1989 kung saan nakapaloob na “mangunguna ang Unibersidad sa pagtulong na bumuo ng pambansang wikang ang tawag ay Filipino, ang wika ng ating sibilisasyon;” (2) binubura ng bagong panukala ang nakamit na tagumpay ng wikang Filipino bilang wika ng pananaliksik at ang intelektuwalisasyon nito; at (3) isinasantabi ang halaga ng pag-aaral ng Filipino bilang lunsaran ng identidad at kaalamang-bayan. “Paurong ang nagiging perspektiba ng Unibersidad sa halip na maging pasulong.”

Inugnay ni Flores ang patakaran sa edukasyong kumikiling sa internasyonalisasyon sa balangkas ng globalisasyong binibigyang-katwiran ng ideolohiyang neoliberalismo, kung saan sinasalansan ang lahat ng aparato upang umastang parang negosyo. Mapapansing ganito ang nangyayari sa UP, simula nang magtaas ng matrikula dahil sa pag-abandona ng estado sa responsibilidad nito: humahanap na ng pagkakakitaan ang UP, kabilang ang pag-angkop sa posibleng mga kustomer na mapaglalakuan ng edukasyong UP, pakikipagsosyo sa pribadong mga korporasyon at pagpaparenta ng mga lupain, halimbawa, sa mga Ayala. Sabi ni Flores, winiwala tayo gamit ang wika at inaangkin ang maling kahulugan.

“Ang intelektwalisadong wika at propesyon sa wika o larangan ay nasa balangkas talaga ng edukasyong kolonyal. Magsisimula talaga dito bilang panimulang tungtungan sa demokratisasyon. Ibig sabihin, pagbibigay-puwang ng paglikha ng kaalaman at pagpapalawig ng kakayanan ng taong magpahayag sa wika kung saan sila komportable. Hindi lang ito sentimental, pero sentral sa demokrasya o panlipunang hustisya,” ani Flores.

Bagamat mahalaga ang pambansang identidad, tulad ng sinasabi ni Nicolas, mahirap itong makamit kung walang asignaturang Filipino sa GEP. Sa karanasan ng Indonesia at Malaysia, matatayang mas matibay ang kabuluhan ng nasyonalismo sa unang dalawang karatig-rehiyon. Sa Thailand kung saan sa Ingles itinuturo ang “Thai-ness,” na siyang tutularan ng UP upang makapagsilbi sa dayong mga iskolar at mapabatid sa kanila ang “Filipino-ness,” tila nagiging turismo ang kahihinatnan ng dapat sana ay akademikong mobilidad.

“Kailangan talaga magkaroon ng perspektiba ang mga estudyante na Pilipino sila. Hindi lang sila Ilokano o Kapampamngan, kundi Pilipino rin sila. Mahirap ka na nga, sasagasa ka sa globalisasyon at kalat-kalat ka pa,” ani Flores. Para sa kanya, problematiko ang multi-polarity, multiperspective o lubusang diversity at mas mainam nang nagkakaisa, malakas at may pagkakaisa. Tila sinagot ni Flores ang hamon ni Tinio: kung “last stand na ba ito ng Filipino?” Sabi ni Flores, “Huwag na tayong umatras, umunlad na ang akademikong larangan ng Filipino. Ang erya ng linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, lexicography, pagsasalin, pagpalanong pangwika, pagsasalin, malikhaing pagsulat, araling Pilipino.

Ito ang ‘gusi’ ng kaalaman, ito na yung balon o knowledge production. itutuloy sa pahina 13

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ISIP, SALITA AT GAWA PARA KANINO... mula sa pahina 12

Ito na yung inabot ng pagtatapat ng kaalaman ng consciousness ng area of knowledge dun sa isang globalisading kaalaman.”

Sa parehong porum, nagbalik-kasaysayan si Pambansang Alagad ng Sining Bienvenido Lumbera at nilagom na ang pinakaugat ng problema sa edukasyon ay ang edukasyong kolonyal na ipinamana sa atin ng imperyalismong Amerikano. Tulad ng maraming makabayang akademiko, pabor si Lumbera na unahin muna ang kapakanan ng mga Pilipino, bago ang dayuhan: “Ang mga Filipino ay nakalimutang isaalang-alang ng mga edukador na nagplano ng pagtatayo ng K to 12 at patuloy na pagpapalaganap ng kolonyal na edukasyon sa Pilipinas. Bakit [nga ba] kailangang ang edukasyon ay maituon sa sambayanang Pilipino, sa halip na sa mga mmamayan sa daigdig? Ang mga Pilipino ang unang dapat paglingkuran ng ating education system, pero lumalabas na [pinapahaba lang ang pag-aaral dulot ng K to 12] upang maging kwalipikado silang maglingkod sa mga kompanya sa labas ng Pilipinas.

Anong requirement para ang isang Pilipino ay makapa g panukalang GEP. Hindi maitatanggi ang pagkakahawig nito sa GEP ng Harvard. Bagaman may ilang pag-amin na naimpluwensyahan ng modelong ito ang panukalang programa na nais gawin sa UP, mahalagang isaalang-alang na marapat itong nakaangkla sa perspektiba at pilosopiyang Filipino, at dumaan sa masusing pag-aaral upang makalikha ng bagong programa.

Sa proposal, walang pagbanggit man lamang sa mga tagumpay ng mga naunang GEP.” “Sa pagbuo ng bagong programa, pangangailangang humalaw ng mga aral mula sa pinagmulan nito; ilunan sa historikal na konteksto at hindi lamang basta-basta ibatay sa programa ng mga kanluraning institusyon,” mungkahi ni Rodriguez. “Gawing sistematiko ang pagbuo at pagtuturo nito bilang panimulang batayan ng paglikha ng kaalaman ng mga mag-aaral na papasok sa ating unibersidad.

Ibig sabihin, tingnan ang GEP ng UP bilang tungtungan ng kaalaman ng mga mag-aaral sa kanilang pagsabak sa ninanais na propesyon at disiplina sa halip na ituring ang mga ito bilang pampalubag-loob lamang.”

Higit pa sa pagiging pundasyon ng pagsasa-ayos ng GEP bilang rekisito upang mapaunlad ang akademikong mga programa ng UP para sa internasyonalisasyon, molde rin itong huhubog sa mga estudyanteng inaasahang mag-ambag, hindi lang sa pagbubuo ng bayan, kundi sa paglilingkod sa sambayanan. Sa tinatahak na landas ng UP sa tangka nitong integrasyon o pakikisabay sa mga karatig-rehiyon, kailangang bantayan kung naisasakripisyo ang kapakanan ng kalakhan ng mamamayan para sa kapakanan ng iilang may kakayanang magbayad sa edukasyong tila nagiging kalakal, sa halip na karapatan.

Sapat na nga ba ang pagka-Pilipino “sa isip, sa salita, sa gawa” sa panatang pinabibigkas sa atin mula elementarya, kahit noong wala pang K to 12? Mapaninindigan na ba natin ang pagiging makabayan—ang ating pagiging iisang bayan—sa pakikipagsapalaran sa sandaigdigan? Iiwan ko na rin ang ilang ulit na itinanong ni Lumbera, ang ating isip (teorya), salita (wika), gawa (praktika), anong kahihinatnan? Para kanino?

-------------------Padalhan ng email ang awtor sa arbeen.acuna@gmail.com.

Participants from UP Diliman and Austria's Universitat Innsbruck discuss the offering of an Asian Studies Program on February 2013. The second session (bottom two photos) was held in January 2014.

14 UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014

The ASEAN Leadership Forum of 2013 looks into Social Solidarity Economy as an alternative model of inclusive, resilient, and sustainable development. The forum, held at the GT-Toyota Auditorium of the UP Asian Center, was organized by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) and the Asian Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC).

DANGAL AT HUSAY MULA SA KAWANI... mula sa pahina 7 Sa usapin ng sahod, ipinapakita ng datos na 65 porsyento ng mga regular na empleyado ay may salary grade 17 pababa na kumikita ng Php 29,028 pababa.

Karamihan sa kanila ay may salary grade 15 (Php 24,887) na binubuo ng 1,754 na empleyado, pangalawa ang mga may salary grade 6 (Php 12,921) na binubuo ng 1,007 kawani, at pangatlo ay 815 na kawani na may salary grade 4.

Kahusayan at Internasyonalisasyon Hindi mararating ng UP ang tagumpay nito sa mahabang panahon kung wala ang mga kawani upang tiyakin ang regular na operasyon at pananatili ng kaayusan ng Unibersidad. Ang pagkilala sa kanilang mahalagang papel ay nakasaad sa kasalukuyang istratehikong plano ng UP. Paliwanag nito: “Academic excellence needs the support of an enabling environment anchored on operational excellence.

Operational excellence, in turn, is achievable only through administrative efficiency and financial sustainability.”1 Ang panahong ito ay isang mahalagang yugto sa buhay ng UP kung kailan ang talaban ng academic at operational excellence ay higit na kailangan upang maigpawan ang mga hamon at makamit ang bisyon bilang “isang dakilang Unibersidad sa ika-21 siglo.”2 Katulad ito ng pagharap sa malaking hamon ng internasyonalisasyon.

Naipamalas ng UP ang kakayahan nitong gawin sa maikling panahon ang mekanismo upang umiral ang internasyonalisasyon sa sistema ng mataas na edukasyon sa bansa. Ang bagong akademikong kalendaryo ay isa sa mga ibinungang tagumpay ng masigasig na paghahanda para sa internasyonalisasyon. Sa katunayan, epektibo noong nakaraang Agosto, nagbukas ang kauna-unahang akademikong taon ng internasyonalisasyon sa pangunguna ng UP. Bagama’t ang iba pang matingkad na hakbang sa paghahanda ay nakatuon sa pang-akademikong aspekto, ang internasyonalisasyon ay hindi lamang paghahanda ng akademikong sektor ng pamantasan, kundi ng buong pamantasan.

Kahandaan at internasyonalisasyon Sa kabila ng mga hakbang na ginawa ng mga kawani upang maihanda ang pamantasan sa pagbabagong ito, halimbawa ang pagsasa-ayon ng operasyon sa bagong akademikong kalendaryo, interesanteng malaman ang antas ng kahandaang isinasagawa para sa mga kawani ng UP system.

Ayon sa inilabas na “Academic Calendar Shift and Internationalization: Implementing Guidelines and Monitoring and Evaluation Plan” ng Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs noong ika-20 ng Pebrero 2014, matatagpuan sa ika12 seksyon ang paghahanda sa mga kawani batay sa mga sumusunod na hakbang: 12.1. Train staff to address issues and concerns during the pilot phase of the

implementation of the academic calendar shift.

12.2. Train staff to maintain and operate new facilities.

12.3. Hire staff with international communication skills to move forward UP’s internationalization plan.

12.4. Hire staff with special skills to deal with foreign students and faculty and address the needs of UP students/faculty/REPS abroad.

Binabanggit din ang mga kawani sa ika-16 na seksyon na may pamagat na “Alignment with National Government Agenda: Internationalization and ASEAN Economic Cooperation in Response to Globalization.” Nakasaad sa ikalawang punto nito: “Seek better compensation and incentives for UP faculty and staff to be at par with faculty (and staff) in ASEAN universities.”3 Samantala, ayon naman sa presentasyon na pinamagatang “UP HR (Human Resource) Strategic Plan” na tinalakay ni Prop. Maragtas Amante, bise-presidente para sa Administrasyon noong nakaraang Mayo, pangunahin sa plano nito ang “structure and staffing” na may kinalaman sa pagsasa-ayos ng mga plantilla o ang “UP HR rationalization.” Kasama rin sa plano ang “staff development” na nakatuon sa pagpapaunlad ng mga kasanayan ng mga kawani; “effective succession planning;” “performance evaluation and reward system” na sentral ang usapin ng promosyon at insentibo; at “employee relations.” Ilan sa nakapaloob dito ang pagpapabuti ng diyalogo at negosasyon sa pagitan ng mga unyon—ang All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) at All UP Workers Union (AUPWU), maging ang pagpapaunlad sa proseso ng grievance.4 Kasalukuyang isinasagawa ang mga hakbang upang makamit ang bawat aspektong nabanggit sa plano. Matingkad dito ang hakbang upang mailagay sa ayos ang plantilla ng empleyado sa pamamagitan ng HR rationalization na ayon kay Bise-Presidente Amante ay may tatlong pangunahing punto: (1) “regularization of contractual/non-plantilla positions from the non-core workforce of UP; (2) rationalization of overload pay, with provisions for clear reductions of new faculty positions, backed up by student-faculty ratios. Colleges/units with underloaded faculty will have regular teaching load; (3) faculty with overloaded teaching units, as well as researchers will have more time to do more research, with more publications, creative work, and patented innovations.”

Nagawa na ng administrasyon, ayon kay Amante, ang eUP Human Resource Information System (staff development), Strategic Performance Management System o SPMS at ang performance-based pay system (reward system), at ang mas maayos na negosasyon sa pagitan ng mga unyon ng Unibersidad.

Pagpapaunlad sa kalagayan Ang mga paghahanda ng administrasyon ay magkakaugnay sa tunguhing paunlarin ang kahusayan at kalagayan ng mga kawani. Mahalaga ito lalo na ngayong maigting din ang sukatan ng kakayahan at kagalingan ng mga kawani sa iba’t ibang pamantasan sa Asya, na sa kalauna’y magiging batayan ng mas maalwan, kung hindi man ng seguridad sa trabaho.

Sa isang panayam ng UP Forum, sinabi ng AUPWU na “ang partisipasyon ng UP dito upang hindi mapag-iwanan sa pandaigdigang pamantayan ay nakasalalay sa suportang nakukuha nito sa gobyerno. Ang pagpapaunlad sa pasilidad, pagpapataas ng benepisyo at sahod ng guro at kawani, at pagtiyak na maraming estudyante itutuloy sa pahina 15

UP FORUM Volume 15 No. 4 July-August 2014 15

DANGAL AT HUSAY MULA SA KAWANI... mula sa pahina 14 ang nakakapasok ay dapat makita sa pambansang badyet na inilalaan ng gobyerno. Ngunit sa kasalukuyang badyet at sa badyet ng mga nakaraang taon makikita kung gaano kaatrasado ang pamantasan, nagpapakita lamang na hindi ito handa.

Hindi dapat iwanan ng UP ang mga kawani sa pagharap nila sa internasyonalisasyon."

Ayon sa AUPWU, ang tagumpay sa ano mang larangan ay nagsisimula sa pundasyon ng edukasyon. Mungkahi nito na sa halip na managinip ang UP na siya ay isang higante at kayang humarap sa tunay na higante, ay ibaling niya ang atensyon sa kaniyang mahalagang papel na mabigyan ng tamang direksyon ang mga isko at iska kung paano at para kanino ang kaniyang galing. Para sa AUPWU, ito ang susi sa tunay na paglakas ng bayan.

Upang patuloy na makilala ang UP sa buong mundo, bukod sa pang-akademiko, mainam rin, ayon sa AUPWU, na maging huwaran ito sa pagsusulong sa kagalingan ng kawani upang maging handa sila sa pagharap ng UP sa internasyonalisasyon.

Maliban sa pagpapatupad ng e-UP, upang umakma sa bilis ng pamamaraan ng pagkalap ng mga datos na kailangan sa araw-araw na gawain ng mga opisina, kailangan ding ma-“retool” ang mga kawani. Malaki ang kailangang paghahanda upang makinabang sila sa bagong teknolohiya. Inaasahang magiging susi ang e-UP sa pagpapaunlad ng operational excellence at kakayahan ng kawani.

“Ang internasyonalisasyon ay may layuning makipag-ugnayan na may mithiing makipagtulungan at matuto sa bawat isa upang umunlad nang parehas. Kaya’t marapat lamang na ihanda ang mga estudyante, guro at kawani sa internasyonalisasyon sa pamamagitan ng pagpapaunlad ng kakayahan nila, higit sa pagpapaunlad ng kanilang kalagayan. Kung kaya marapat na tutulan ang kontraktwalisasyon sa hanay ng mga kawani, isulong ang kanilang regularisasyon, promosyon at dagdag na sahod,” suma nito.

Ang kolektibong pagtupad ng mga kawani, guro, estudyante at ng buong komunidad ng UP, higit ang pagtaya ng pamunuan sa pagpapaunlad ng kanilang kalagayan, ay bahagi ng administratibong kahusayan. Sa kalauna’y lilikha ito ng isang mapagkalingang kapaligiran upang umiral ang mga kondisyong magpapatingkad sa akademikong kahusayan sa lahat ng panahon at maging sa pagdating ng internasyonalisasyon.

-------------------Padalhan ng email ang awtor sa forum@upd.edu.ph.

DEVELOPING SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES... continued from page 16 the areas of trade in services, goods and investments. In addition, under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services, eight packages of commitments have been concluded with the ninth package being finalized.

Under each package, the ASEAN Member States are opening up their services sectors for other Member States. Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) have been concluded to facilitate recognition of professionals, including accountants, architects, surveyors, engineers, dental practitioners, medical practitioners, nurses and tourism professionals.

These developments provide vast opportunities for the Philippine human resources sector which is universally acknowledged as most sought in the region for its competence, industry and adaptability.

However, the ASEAN framework also provides qualification standards which ASEAN professionals must meet. Paper requirements are essential for entry level employment because without being hired, how will employers in the region appreciate the competitive advantages of Philippine professionals?

The government HR triumvirate— the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Education and the Technical Skills Development Authority—upon the prodding of and in partnership with the private sector has initiated and implemented various measures to enhance readiness for AEC. The institution of K to 12 is a basic foundation to meet these requirements and must be achieved no matter how challenging are the complementary measures required.

For Philippine professionals with the experience but lacking the paper requirements, educational institutions should provide enhancement programs to meet the demands of the

NOTES:

1 Hango mula sa UP Strategic Plan 2011-2017: The Path to Greatness.

2 Hango mula sa bisyon ng kasalukuyang administrasyon na nakasaad sa UP Strategic Plan 2011-2017.

3 Bahagi sa nakasaad na Academic Calendar Shift and Internationalization: Implementing Guidelines and Monitoring and Evaluation Plan mula sa Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

4 Bahagi ng powerpoint presentation ni Dr. Maragtas Amante, ang bise-presidente para sa Administrasyon na may pamagat na “Supporting Academic Excellence and operational excellence in a multicampus environment” na tinalakay noong ika-27 ng Mayo 2014.

AEC. The opportunities in AEC are so varied and cover many levels that an integrated and consistent program addressing all of them should be established and calibrated.

It should also be emphasized that the Philippines should not prepare its professionals and workforce only for deployment in ASEAN. Philippine business should ensure that all its human resources have the competence and skills to make Philippine business highly competitive in 2015. It is expected that enterprising ASEAN businesses will attempt to enter the Philippine market either by flooding it with goods and services or by establishing a production and marketing base in the country. Such competition must be met by equally good or better Philippine enterprises.

The insights offered by Robert Rosen and his team in their book, Global Literacies, are extremely useful. They opine that globally competitive enterprises need to focus on three major assets people, relationships and culture.

People are the new corporate resource. Business fights to attract, retain, develop and motivate the best and the brightest, seeking new ways to measure and enhance the value of their human capital. Companies need to establish and nurture strong, healthy internal and external relationships to enhance value through teams, networks, suppliers, and even alliances and joint ventures with competitors. They stress that cultural wisdom a deep understanding of their own cultures and those of others will enable companies to mobilize diverse peoples, serve diverse customers, and operate around the world.

Broadly, a Philippine company’s management and staff should seek to understand the workings of ASEAN, particularly its various economic instruments. The regional legal frameworks set the scope and terms by which ASEAN Member States are cooperating and working with each other. They also will serve as a guide to the regulatory reforms that

will be undertaken at the national level, which in turn will impact on a company’s way of doing business.

Studying the ASEAN economic agreements will allow one to see the opportunities offered by economic integration from trade facilitation, labor mobility, to infrastructure connectivity, among many others. It will also allow one to understand the changes brought about by AEC and their accompanying impacts. In turn, this will enable companies to formulate strategies and prepare for 2015.

Developing competencies and skills for AEC necessitates a new, flexible and inquisitive mindset which only Philippine educational institutions can develop and nurture.

-------------------Professor Melito Salazar, Jr. served as president of the Management Association of the Philippines in 2013.

At present, he is dean of the School of Accountancy & Management of the Centro Escolar University. He earned his BSBA and MBA from UP. Email him at melito.jr@gmail.com.

E R R AT U M In the article "In Search of Common Ground: Indigenous Education and Western Academics for Biodiversity Conservation" by KIM Quilinguing, which appeared on page 12 of the March-April 2014 issue of the UP FORUM, the line "Manobos in Mt. Kitanglad, Bukidnon" should have read "Manobos in Mt. Kalatungan, Bukidnon" as the Manobo ancestral domain claims are in Mt. Kalatungan and not Mt. Kitanglad. Both mountains are however found in Bukidnon. We apologize for any misconceptions and confusion the mistake may have caused.

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Developing Skills and Competencies for ASEAN Integration Melito Salazar, Jr.

P

Photo from http://robertharlandsr.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/rotary-clubs-inductions-slated-for-july-18/

hilippine business has been mainly focused on the domestic market, and, on a limited scale, on the markets of the United States and Europe, and, in recent years, China. This orientation has influenced management thinking strategies and programs toward Western concepts.

Even with the Philippines being part of the ASEAN, minimal attention from Philippine business has been focused on the markets of ASEAN. By 2015, such a situation will not serve the interest of Philippine business and society since in that year, the full integration of ASEAN into one market, with free exchange of products, services, human resources and capital, will occur.

The mindset of Philippine businessmen and managers must change, by looking at ASEAN as their domestic market while keeping the United States, Europe and China as export markets. Strategies should correspondingly change for the Philippines to meet the challenges of businesses from other ASEAN countries locating in the Philippines and to seize the opportunities provided by the huge market in other ASEAN countries.

The change will only come about if Philippine business, government and the academe work together not only to bring about this change of mindset but also to enhance the skills and competencies of Philippine human resources so we can better compete in the era of ASEAN integration.

The significance of ASEAN integration is evident in the fact that in 2013 the ASEAN economy grew between 5.3 and 6.0 percent compared with 5.7 percent in 2012. Strong domestic demand continued to underpin ASEAN’ economic growth in 2013. The growth in ASEAN-5 stayed steady at the end of 2013 while Brunei Darussalam and the CLMV economies (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam) grew at relatively higher levels. It is this growth pattern which will be the foundation of substantial spurts in the ASEAN economy come 2015.

That economic growth will depend much on the intra-ASEAN trade which in 2012 remained stable at US$ 601 billion, and accounted for the highest share in both ASEAN’s total exports at 26 percent and total imports at 23 percent. Bucking the trend of declining global FDI inflows, particularly in developing economies, intra-ASEAN FDI net inflows also soared significantly, reaching US$20 billion or an 18.5 percent share in 2012 with total FDI level at US$ 108.2 billion.

By 2015 the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will draw more FDIs attracted by the synergistic opportunities offered by the region a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy.

The greatest attraction of the region is the highly skilled and competitive human resources enhanced by the facilitative environment of AEC. In November 2012, the ASEAN Agreement on Movement of Natural Persons was signed to facilitate the temporary movement of natural persons including skilled labor across the region in continued on page 15 Photo from WikiCommons