Suffering Bare Minimums

Arguably the most essential factor among the PESTLE family, sociocultural factors cover issues on education, social welfare, and gender equality. Among these topics, the Marcos Administration had several developments. First off, the current administration places a great emphasis on the fields of science, technology, and innovation. A testament to this includes making scholarships available to students starting from high school and above. Moreover, 44 Filipino scientists have been sent back to do research in crucial fields as part of the Balik-Scientist initiative. In addition, the Philippines has deployed two satellites to cater to diverse national requirements, ranging from traffic control to meteorological prediction (Roxas-Divinagracia et al., 2023).

Even though there have been reports of what could be further improved in the science and technology education sector, I feel that it is not enough to provide contribute to our country’s competitiveness. As someone who came from a Science High School, these programs had already been around since back then. I would say that most of the programs are just the bare minimum and that no significant impact can be seen in effect due to these programs. I would commend the administration for at least having maintained these programs, but the science and technology fields have always been sidelined for quite some time now. Personally, I would highly appreciate seeing more research papers being allowed to reach commercial production and technical feasibility, so that more Filipino communities can benefit from them.

On another note, Mangaluz (2023) reports that the administration led by Marcos Jr. is actively improving social protection programs aimed at assisting Filipinos who have been impacted by poverty, tragedies, and disasters. Despite encountering obstacles such as elevated inflation rates, the government has mandated the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to enhance initiatives such as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino and to proactively furnish relief provisions before the occurrence of tragedies.

With that, I view subsidy programs as band-aid solutions rather than actively solving the problem at hand. This tends to make some recipients dependent on the subsidies rather than being motivated to work for a living. While I agree that subsidy programs do help their beneficiaries, I feel that rather than pursuing these programs, the government could have focused on job employment and empowerment among our workforce by giving livable wages to them. This would also help in contributing to SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth for the foreseeable future. With how strenuous it is to work in the country, I do not blame that some community members would rather rely on the social protection programs than be motivated to work at all.

Moving forward, Executive Order 51 was issued by Marcos Jr., which aimed to establish a dedicated committee on LGBTQIA+ concerns within the framework of the Inter-Agency Committee. The objective of this initiative is to advance gender equality and combat prejudice, thereby facilitating the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals in the process of policy development and addressing their specific problems (Gita-Carlos, 2024).

Upon reading this, I find it counterproductive that the Marcos Jr. Administration made it an inter-agency committee concern, rather than a legislative one. There is something wrong with how they would rather keep it to this minimum than enact policies that would genuinely help with gender quality, such as the SOGIE bill. Even now, the said bill is still not flying with the House and the Senate, primarily because of their belief systems hindering them from pushing for it. As such, this establishment of a committee appears useless to me, as it cannot exactly give protection to the Filipino community, particularly women and the members of the LGBTQIA+.

For a factor considered the most important among others, it seems like sociocultural issues are more often than not overlooked or given the bare minimum. We could only hope for a day that a miracle happens and a significant change would move the affected communities.

#InquiryAnalysisReflection #COBIBMO

Sophia Isabel S. Cauilan

Topic: Sociocultural Factors