UNIFORM CONTROVERSY

SIMPLY BUSINESS

by LARRY LOCARA

The Iloilo Provincial Capitol is gripped with the uniform controversy. On one end, the majority of employees wanting to get their own uniforms sewed by their favorite tailors while drawing from the design published by the Iloilo Provincial Employees Association which details clothing and embroidery specifications. Just like what they had been used to in the days of the previous Defensor Governorship when Mr. Jerry Bionat was president of the IPGEA..

On the other end is the cabal composed of two feared and maligned witches who are insisting to get these uniforms done by a Manila based clothes designer. These suggested uniform cuts were once paraded by unwilling models who looked as if the modeling show was an excruciating sacrifice and that their reward would only come from heaven when they have expired from this troubled earth.

There were some computations presented, insinuating that four pairs of uniforms would cost just P3,000.00 for the men and a bit more for the women. A pair would mean a polo barong and pants designated to be worn each day from Monday through Thursday. So the pair would cost P750.00 each. Well that's cheap if we are to believe what these witches are saying and they must be cooking a powerful brew. Or rather, they may have create a powerful potion that would fabricate those uniforms from hay or some similar material that can cut their production cost way way to low!

In the late 1990s when the Provincial Government mandated new sets of uniforms and released money directly to us, I had purchased the cloths at P200.00/cut from the designated store and had the uniform guide photo copied and brought this to Yardley at Iznart St., beside the YMCA building. The labor cost me P350.00 for the barong and I bought some matching pairs of pants from G-- City at P350.00/pair during a sale. Each pair therefore cost me P900.00. I made sure I had complete sets of uniforms as required and provided for by the amount released to me by the Iloilo Provincial Government. I had a few hundred pesos left despite having complied with the requirements and of course that meant some savings for me.

My co-employees had similar uniforms although they had bigger savings since they also got copies of the design but commissioned their own tailors to make their uniforms where they paid lower labor cost. It was not anyform as insinuated by these witches and we heard no complaints from key officers and even the Governor.

When the next Governor came, a bigger ogre emerged and he together with some witches ordered to employees to get their uniform from a preferred source who proceeded to supply substandard tops that tore and faded in just a few months. These ogres and witches had definitely made a killing at the expense of the employees!

I always have a logical mind and I am not one to get emotional about an issue. I am only wondering how a Manila based designer can manufacture a set for just P750.00! Have they found a source of good quality cloth that will cost them just P150.00/set? Will they allow themselves to accept P200.00 for the labor of each set of uniform tops? And tailor a pair of pants for just P400.00? I may be poor but I am not poor at computations. My math teachers once said that I can tick off numbers even without the use of a calculator.

My teachers at UPLB when I was taking my agri-business course may have taught me wrong economics. May be I am wrong. Maybe they can really fabricate a good set of uniform for just P750.00.