Lawmaker cautions gov’t over branding ‘obsession’
Assistant Minority Floor Leader Arlene Brosas. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Assistant Minority Floor Leader Arlene Brosas on Sunday advised the administration to stop its “obsession” with rebranding projects and just buckle down to work in providing Filipinos higher wages and decent jobs and reducing the cost of goods and services.
Brosas, the Gabriela Women’s Party representative, maintained that President Marcos’ “Bagong Pilipinas” governance slogan was “replete with ironies as Filipinos continue to reel from the same depressed wages, poor economic prospects and from the same Marcosian rule that is detached from the realities on the ground.”
“What’s next? A logo for Maharlika Investment Corp.? The administration must cut its obsession for rebranding projects and buckle down to work to address mounting calls for decent jobs, higher wages, and lower prices,” the lawmaker said.
She pointed out in Filipino: “Rebranding is not the answer to low wages, poverty, and the country’s failing economy. What the government should focus on is implementing a significant salary hike, national industrialization, and agrarian reform for fundamental economic change.”
Brosas stressed that no amount of dressing up by the current administration could erase the Marcoses’ sins to the Filipino people. Instead of wasting government resources on rebranding projects, she said the Marcos administration should act on the demands of ordinary Filipinos for lower prices and higher wages.
The lawmaker noted that average wages in the Philippines rank among the lowest in the Southeast Asian region.
She further pointed out that representatives of political dynasties occupy key positions in the executive and legislative branches of government.
