Noy orders Cabinet to intensify job creation

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino ordered his Cabinet Tuesday to “intensify programs on job creation and social protection” amid the ballooning 12.1 million unemployed Filipinos.

“The President directed Cabinet members to be proactive in delivering front-line services that will assist Filipinos in provinces where there is a high incidence of poverty,” Presidential Communications Operation Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a news briefing in Malacañang yesterday.

The President’s directive came after the Social Weather Stations reported that unemployment grew in December 2013, from just about 9.6 million jobless in the country in September of the same year.

Coloma said the main agenda of the Cabinet meeting was the “action plans on job creation, social protection and poverty reduction presented by the departments comprising the Cabinet’s human development and poverty reduction cluster.”

“A key recommendation of the Cabinet cluster on human development and poverty reduction was to implement strategies with spatial and sectoral dimensions to ensure attainment of inclusive growth,” he said.

Categories in which government’s efforts in job generation must be focused were also specified.

Category 1 for the “most” number of poor, Category 2 where “poor households are high” and Category 3 for those “exposed to multiple hazards.”

“The objective for Category 1 provinces is to create more economic opportunities; for Category 2, enhance mobility of labor and goods; and for Category 3, increase resilience since they are most vulnerable to disasters,” Coloma explained.

Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo will focus on increasing the country’s competitiveness in industry sectors with high employment multipliers like shipbuilding, food processing, furniture, chemicals, automotive, copper and copper products, electronics and garments.

“Continuing support will be given to the IT-BPO sector that has been a consistent generator of new employment opportunities. The Department of Trade and Industry will also pursue initiatives in further improving the ease of doing business and lowering power costs to enhance employment and job creation,” he said.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the Department of Labor and Employment would “facilitate job matching and placement of jobseekers” through their “convergence programs” in 30 priority provinces that include those hit by disasters.

NEDA: Gov’t missed job creation targets

Coloma also told reporters that Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan presented a mid-term assessment of the government’s performance and admitted that the government missed its job creation targets and objectives with regards to the Philippine Development Plan.

“We are on track with respect to our economic targets, but we lag with respect to our social outcomes,” Coloma said, quoting Balisacan.

The National Statistical Coordination Board reported in April 2013 that poverty incidence for the first half of 2012 was 27.9 percent, slightly less than the 28.8 percent recorded in the first half of 2006 and the 28.6 percent recorded in the first half of 2009 and 2011.

By “economic targets,” Balisacan meant the robust 7.2 percent GDP growth in 2013 – the second highest in Asia next to economic giant China.

This is mostly “consumption-driven,” according to Coloma.

Coloma also said the National Economic and Development Authority reported that “fixed capital formation has also been on the uptrend, reaching 21.1 percent in 2013 or just a shade below the 22-percent target.”

As far as the national government is concerned, however, “unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in 2013 compared to the forecast range of 6.8 to 7.2 percent,” Coloma said.

He noted that the Aquino government has managed to reduce poverty level in the country to 25.2 percent based on the latest 2012 full-year figures.–-Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) with Paolo Romero