Govt’s employment claims truly impressive but critics dispute them

Data from the Office of the President show that from 2004 to Nov 2009, a total of 14.2 million jobs were generated. This is 237 percent of the low-end six million target and 142 percent of the high-end 10-million target stated by President Gloria Arroyo in the 10-point legacy development agenda

The housing sector contributed 3.78 million jobs. The government-aided micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) generated 3.5 million jobs. Agricultural land development works contributed 2.44 million jobs, Infrastructure projects 1.52 million, Ecozones 574,058 jobs, Information and Communication Technology 387,7341 jobs, Mining 75,269 jobs and apprenticeships via Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Kasanayan at Hanapbuhay Program 432,347 jobs.

In agriculture, the Arroyo administration claims to have delivered on its commitment to increase the country’s food security and sufficiency levels through its flagship program for the agriculture and fisheries sector given the acronym FIELDS.

This was announced by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in mid June.

FIELDS stands for the six areas of agriculture where the Arroyo administration has been channeling its support to—Fertilizer; Irrigation and other rural infrastructure; Extension and education services for farmers; Loans; Dryers and other post-harvest facilities and Seeds and other genetic materials.

Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla said the accomplishments of the Arroyo administration with regard to this flagship program is chronicled in a book titled Fields of Glory which was launched on June 18 at the DA-Bureau of Soils and Water Management Convention Hall in Quezon City.

FIELDS was unveiled by the President during the Department of Agriculture-sponsored National Food Summit at the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga in April 2008.

Fondevilla said that among the accomplishments of the Arroyo administration under FIELDS and its various farm programs are:

For the Fertilizer component, the Agriculture department provided 1,380 technology packages on environment- friendly, community-based composting facilities under the Support System for the Tipod Abono Fertilization Program. Out of the 1,380 packages, 428, or 31 percent were distributed in the Mindanao Agribusiness Super Region, 315 in the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle, 430 in Central Philippines, 204 in the Urban Luzon Beltway and three in the National Capital Region (NCR).

For Irrigation and other rural infrastructure, about P79.7 billion has been released for the restoration and rehabilitation of national and communal irrigation systems nationwide, generating 140,042 hectares of new areas. A total of 1,480,826 hectares located in the four super regions were also restored and rehabilitated.

The government also constructed since 2001, a total of 18,929 kilometers of farm-to-market roads worth P26.77 billion, and established 50 mariculture parks covering a total of 49,073 hectares.

For Extension, the department provided a total of 22,941 various agricultural technology trainings and orientations from 2001 to 2009 to 977,713 farmers, agricultural extension workers, and farmer entrepreneurs.

For the Loans component, from 2001 to 2009, a total of P28.8 billion was released under the
Agro-Industry Modernization and Credit Financing Program and Quedancor to farmer-beneficiaries. If palay (unhusked rice) production loans from the LandBank and releases from other financial institutions and agencies are included, the total would amount to P465 billion.

For Dryers and other post-harvest facilities, a total of 2,016 units of flatbed dryers were delivered, installed and completed. Through the mechanical drying system, an estimated 25,724 metric tons of palay valued at P437 million was saved in 2008.

A total of 39 cold chain facilities were also completed and now operational nationwide.

For the Seeds component, the department provided 1.68 million bags of hybrid and 12.5 million bags of certified palay seeds from 2001 to 2009 to farmers nationwide. The department also established the development of climate-ready seeds including saline-, drought- and flood-resistant varieties.

Fondevilla said Malacañang put FIELDS on the fast lane starting 2009 as several of its intervention programs had been incorporated into the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) component of the President’s economic stimulus package, which was meant to help Filipinos ride out last year’s global economic crisis.

Some economists have, however, disputed the government claims and say the President has failed to meet the number one promise on her 10-point agenda, the creation of 10 million jobs by 2010.

In the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), the Arroyo administration promised to generate six to 10 million jobs from 2004 to 2010.

In an updated MTPDP report of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the unemployment “remains high and meeting job creation targets continue to be a challenge.”

A persistent critic of President Arroyo, former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno said: “During the last nine years, the number of unemployed and underemployed has increased, and the number of poor has expanded.”

He added that even before the global economic crisis, the Philippines’ employment situation was in the critical state.

Victor Abola, economist at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), agreed with Diokno that the trend in job creation from 2006 to 2010 was downward.

Using the new International Labor Organization-based methodology, NEDA said the unemployment rate stood at 8 percent in 2006, 7.3 percent in 2007 and 7.4 percent in 2008.

At end-April 2010, the country’s unemployment rate rose 8 percent, or 3.1 million Filipinos, higher than the 7.5 percent jobless rate recorded in the same period last year.

In April 2008, the unemployment rate was 8 percent.

The spike in unemployment rate came of the hills of a better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.3 percent in the first quarter of the year from 0.5 percent in the same period last year.

Augusto Santos, acting socioeconomic planning secretary, blamed the higher unemployment rate to the economic downturn.

“The second factor is the increase in the labor force is more than what the economy can absorb. There is new employment but the number employed is less than what was generated by the labor force because of the increase in population,” Santos said.

The National Statistic Office said the country’s labor force during the period was about 38.5 million out of the estimated 60.6 million population 15 years old and over. This translates to a labor force participation rate of 63.6 percent.

The NEDA’s updated MTPDP report noted that the estimated 3.5 million employment generated in the 2004 to 2008 period represents a backlog of about 3.5 million, given a target of at least 1.4 million employment created a year.

Moreover, the NEDA said the employment creation in 2008 suffered following a slowing economy, generating only 530,000 new employment.

The NEDA said employment growth lagged behind economic growth, and it remains a “major concern.”

From 2005 to 2008, the NEDA said the country’s GDP grew at an annual average rate of 5.5 percent, much higher than the average employment growth rate of only 2.2 percent.

An indicator of economic performance, GDP is the amount of final goods and services produced in the country.

Last year, the economy grew by 4.6 percent, but employment growth rate was only 1.6 percent.

With weak employment creation, higher prices and population increases in 2004 to 2006, the incidence of poor families in the Philippines increased by 2.5 percentage points to 26.9 percent in 2006 from 24.4 percent in 2003.

In terms of population, the number of poor Filipinos increased from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006.

The NEDA’s MTPDP said overseas employment, on the other hand, remained a vital source of jobs for many Filipinos as deployment figures continued to rise, particularly for highly skilled workers.

Currently, overseas employment continues to fuel the domestic economy with overseas Filipino remittances amounting to $62.9 billion from 2004 to 2008.

Remittances in 2008 posted a significant increase of 13.7 percent from 2007 buoying the economy amidst the global economic turmoil. –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR SENIOR REPORTER, Manila Times