Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Put up ‘ladders of opportunities’ for Filipino workers, Gordon tells business leaders

 

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today urged employers' group to put up ladders of opportunities for their workers in order to uplift them instead of just opening doors of employment despite the economic crisis challenging the globe.

 

Speaking at the 30th National Conference of Employers (NCE) in Manila Hotel, Gordon said businesses should be given a boost and the labor sector uplifted to enable the country to battle with the potential onslaught of the current global crisis.

 

"The crisis is not just today. It has been going on for decades. And we just accept it, we became impassive, we became mere spectators. Today, if you look at our country, I think we are going backwards, like going down in an escalator ride," he said.

 

"Business should really be propped up first if we want to expand our country so that they can create more jobs. If there are more jobs, people have more work, they can save, invest and become prosperous and become entrepreneurs," he added.

 

Gordon was welcomed by the country's top business leaders led by Employers' Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) chairman Miguel Varela, president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr., Ancheta Tan, Donald Dee, Rene Soriano, and Aniano Bagabaldo, among others.

 

The NCE, organized by ECOP, took the theme, "The Global Crisis: Our Response" for this year's event.

 

The conference aims to look into survival and growth measures required to sustain jobs and businesses amidst the worldwide financial crisis and flesh out needed structural reforms to push the country above the gloom pervading the global economy.

 

It also aims to define steps for employers to take to ensure business survival and economic growth.

 

Gordon, head of the Philippine National Red Cross, the country's largest and oldest humanitarian organization today, said employers should define the country positively so that it would develop and churn out once more citizens who have the heart to compete with the rest of the best of the world.

 

"When you define our country, define it with values. Define it as a volunteer country, as a person who is caring, compassionate, a humanitarian. Define it as a confident country, educated. Define it as a competitive country, liberal, tolerant, transformational and a secure and successful country. Not a victim, but one that is always successful in its efforts," he said.

 

"If you have done so, you will have a country, whose citizens are strong, whose citizens believe and use it to make others believe that the Philippines is not just worth dying for but worth living for," he added.

 

The senator pointed out that Filipinos should "break down the walls in their minds" in order to be the best that they can be and find a brighter future.

 

"We must now remove those walls erected in our minds. The quest for Bagumbayan must persist, must remain. I think we can do even greater things still. Be assertive. The world will step aside for someone who knows where he is going," he said. (30)


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