Malacañang to create 1M jobs this year

The government eyes to create one million jobs in the first half of 2009 as part of its emergency measures against the global economic crisis, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) announced Tuesday.

In a separate statement, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the economic measure, discussed during a Cabinet meeting in Iligan City Tuesday, is part of the plan presented to the President in December by Ralph Recto, Socioeconomic Planning secretary and director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

“This is the first new year’s full meeting with the President here in Iligan City,” Dureza added. “The first agenda of the Cabinet is the sustainability plan, the emergency employment and livelihood programs given to Cabinet members for monitoring.”

He said the emergency employment and livelihood program, which is expected to generate one million jobs in the first half of 2009, would be in addition to the existing government programs for job generation.

The new government plan is expected to double the one-million-jobs per year target of the administration implemented in the previous years.

“It will generate employment for the unemployed such as projects for production of organic fertilizer, bantay-dagat [guarding the seas] and bantay-gubat [guarding forests], since those will require employment of people in [the] poor sector. This is the emergency employment project done nationwide by members of the Cabinet,” he explained.

OFW jobs

Also on Tuesday, the Philippine News Agency, citing information from the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), reported that the majority of the 60,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Taiwan’s manufacturing industry are safe from the global financial crisis. The office was reacting to an earlier report from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that said at least 1,000 OFWs in Taiwan and other countries were laid off because of the crisis.

The retrenched OFWs came from the textile and electronic industries, whose exports to the US and elsewhere have been hit by the crisis, said Antonio Basilio, Manila’s representative in Taiwan.

Basilio said 30,000 of the 90,000 Filipinos in Taiwan would be protected from the crisis, as their jobs are primarily set in unaffected sectors, like construction, household service and fishing. In fact, he added, more jobs would be available for Filipinos once the Taiwanese government implements its multimillion-dollar economic stimulus package next year.

A Philippine Overseas Employment Administration official earlier reported that of the 3,321 displaced Filipino workers as of December 23, 2008 worked for Taiwanese electronics firms that recently declared bankruptcy.

Saudi Arabia

A popular Saudi Arabian hospital is recruiting 60,000 nurses to fill hospital positions in the kingdom, said Lito Soriano, a senior officer at LBS E-Recruitment Solution, in a report posted on the website of the television network ABS-CBN.

Unlike in the United States, the demand for nurses in Saudi Arabia is immediate, Soriano added.

The King Fahd Medical Center is only one of the many hospitals in Saudi Arabia looking for Filipino nur­ses, he said, adding that its officials are now in the country to interview prospective employees.

“Saudi Arabia is expanding its health-care system in two or so years,” Labor Undersecretary Carmelita Pineda told The Manila Times.

Hospitals in Saudi Arabia offer $600 to $1,000 monthly in basic salary, plus free housing, transportation and vacation privileges.
— Angelo S. Samonte And Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Manila Times