Call Center Agents Deserve A Party-List Rep Too!

Some people question our need for Congress representation in the 2010 elections. People say we, as call center employees, are NOT marginalized that is why we don't qualify to nominate a partylist group. Does working in a call center then make us second class citizens?

In a recent move to effectively sift through the huge number of partylist groups applying for accreditation in the next elections, the Commission on Elections has reiterated two conditions that will be their guiding principles in approving them. Partylist applicants, like one that applied on behalf of call center agents,  have to represent a sector of society that is under-represented and marginalized. We, as call center employees due to our exponentially growing numbers and special niche in society, will be under-represented in the years to come or probably as soon as the present. However, earning above average salaries puts us in a predicament where some of our fellow countrymen do not consider us marginalized. Being marginalized to many is a situation where one experiences poverty. While this may not be true for call center employees, does this mean we don't deserve to be represented in this democratic country?

3 Facts and Arguments

1. We, as law-abiding citizens, need representation to Congress just like everybody else. If Migrante and and other leftist groups were allowed to have their own people to participate in the House in the past, we as income generating sector of society, deserve it now naturally because we are all equals in the eyes of law.

2. We are all tax-paying citizens. In the U.S., tax-payers are afforded the right for proper representation in their legislative houses. Being that our government is largely patterned with the democratic ways of  government in the U.S., we too deserve this right for recognition. Amongst all gainfully-employed Filipinos, as a sector/group call center agents pay probably the biggest income taxes on a regular basis and at obnoxious rates! Since our salaries are huge, depending on tax classifications, corresponding big taxes are automatically deducted from our salaries with us not having a say about it. If the government taxes us, in effect we pay for their expenses including the ones in Congress. Why should we not have a representative in the law-making body which we pay to sustain operations? If groups like Bayan Muna, Gabriela and others who have representation now but whose members don't present a clear cut evidence that they are paying their duties, why can't the high-tax paying call center employees be afforded such rights? My argument here is not who pays more taxes rather why can't we be given the same right to nominate and elect a representative in the 2010 elections.

3. If not us who else will raise our concerns? Last August 17, Kabataan Party Rep. Raymond Palatino in his own words, tried to generate awareness for call center agents. His presentation style left a lot to be desired to say the least. In my opinion,  his speech was a total disaster and perforated with lies, exaggerations and prejudice against call centers as an industry. His consequent House bill no. 6921 filed the same day was worse. I've already presented my case in the previous post here. This is what happens when people, who hardly knows anything about us and hasn't experienced a day in the life of a call center agent, try to "defend" our members and causes. Our lawmakers and countrymen will get false data and prejudiced statements against us. If big corporations can lobby in Congress through our solons, we as citizens need to have the same people. The most ideal person to represent us is somebody who embodies our ideals and aspirations.

The question of having a call center agent partylist group representative in Congress is not why should we but rather an argument of why shouldn't we. Some people may say the law is the law and it says you call center agents are not poor so you can't get representation no matter what your arguments are. However, laws can be amended and changed. It will just need us to unite and ask a respectable person to fully and unprejudicedly present our concerns.

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