Bulatlat

Bacolod City has recently been cited as the country’s “most livable” city, based on the cost of living, accessibility of basic services, and the peace and order situation. It also boasts of numerous awards including business-friendliness. But behind the accolades lies poverty for the majority of its residents.

BY KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 13, May 4-10, 2008

Bacolod City, the capital of Negros “Sugarlandia,” has recently been cited by Manila-based magazine Money Sense as the country’s most livable city, which cited as the main bases of its conclusion the cost of living, accessibility of basic services, and the peace and order situation.

Aside from this, city officials have also boasted of the numerous awards garnered by the city, among them for being the most business-friendly city, and the most developed IT center in Region VI.

However, basic social and economic facts in the city as reflected in the government’s own socio-economic data reveal a different situation, and seem to confirm the long-standing critique of progressive social scientists and organizations that the region’s prevailing semi-feudal conditions, spurred by a monocrop sugar-based economy controlled by a few big landlords and foreign agribusiness companies, are to be blamed chiefly for the island’s underdevelopment and the unstable economy of Bacolod and other urban centers.

Urban poor alliance Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), which commands a significant influence among slumdwellers and neighborhood associations in the city, has repeatedly asserted that the city government’s orientation to develop Bacolod as a haven for middle class, real estate developers, foreign investors, tourists and expatriates, and sugar lords is “highly problematic” because it already slashed any opportunity for the poor to live decently in the city.

Lack of jobs, unstable income, decent housing, crime wave, exacerbated by the city government’s lack of pro people development paradigm, are just among the manifestations that Bacolod is unlikely to grow as “humane city,” Kadamay said.

“At its best, Bacolod could just become a ‘premier city’ for the moneyed and landed class, and would have no room for the poor and people and individuals with noble social causes, Kadamay stated.

74 percent without stable jobs, income

Official city and labor statistics gathered by Bulatlat revealed that of the 228,000-strong labor force of the city as of 2007, 74 percent have no stable jobs and incomes. Wage and salaried employees and workers constitute a mere 26 percent of the labor force and economic trends show that prospects are not getting any better.

Of the 74 percent, 43 percent or 98,700 are underemployed or odd jobbers, mostly self-employed or are owners of family-based small businesses, while 31 percent or 70,664 are unemployed or continue to look for employment.

Only 26 percent or 58,636 are employed as regulars, probationary and under renewable job contracts, or with clear employer-employee relationship. Majority of this workforce are found in the city’s estimated 21,000 registered businesses as of end 2007.

Of this, 30,028 are in general and professional services, e.g. schools, government offices, communication and transportation sector, and other utility services; 22,854 are in agri-aqua farms, e.g. rice, sugar, fishing, fishponds, vegetables, orchards and coconut; commerce and trade account for 3,554, while processing/manufacturing employ 2,200.

City government not generating enough jobs

Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) labor representative Winnie Sancho said he was not surprised by the employment and unemployment staistics in the city given the slow job generation as against the rapid population growth and migration rate.

“In fact, this condition is similar in all cities and town centers in Negros,” Sancho said.

Sancho believes that the city government’s stress on the service sector is problematic because it is the sector with the most unstable employment, while the agriculture sector which still constitutes the biggest resources and manpower reserves of the city remains largely neglected. Bulatlat