BY ALBERT CASTRO
AN initial P18 billion is being allocated by
the government to create jobs amid increasing retrenchments
because of the global financial crisis.
The budget for the first of the massive
livelihood and emergency employment program will be sourced from
the budget surplus last year, according to the National Anti
Poverty-Commission.
Secretary Domingo Panganiban, NAPC chairman,
said the government invested at least P18.1 billion in projects
to create new employment opportunities for 63,672 poor and low
income workers as the government prepares to cope with the
effects of the global economic crunch on the labor force.
Labor Secretary Marianito Roque last week
said job losses have reached 19,000 since late October while
almost 34,000 have been affected by downsizing.
Panganiban said while the economy "is in
relatively good shape," President Arroyo is determined to
establish the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment
Program (CLEEP) in anticipation of the effects of the global
economic crunch on Filipino workers.
Panganiban said the P18 billion investment
would finance projects to improve the infrastructure systems,
health care services, and enterprise development services.
A report issued by the NAPC macro-policy unit
shows majority of the new jobs planned in the initial stages of
the government’s emergency employment program will be created
through the rehabilitation of irrigation systems under the
National Irrigation Administration, the construction of
farm-to-market roads, a nationwide goat dispersal program, and
the production of organic fertilizers.
The report says 12,058 previously unemployed
or underemployed workers have already been hired through
government-sponsored swine fattening and breeding projects, the
Out of School Youth Serving Towards Economic Recovery (OYSTER)
program, the Botika ng Barangay program of the Department of
Health, the Kalahi program, and the flatbed dryer projects of
the Department of Agriculture.
On the labor front, the labor department has
issued guidelines for the adoption of flexible work hours.
These are for companies "wanting to implement
such arrangements as a coping mechanism in mitigating the impact
of the financial crisis on their business operations," said
Roque.
Based on DOLE Advisory No. 2-2009, some
laborers could eventually have a four-day workweek.
The advisory said the normal workweek would
still require 48 hours but that one man/day could be extended up
to 12 hours of regular time.
"The normal workday is increased to more than
eight hours but not to exceed 12 hours, without corresponding
overtime premium," the advisory said.
If a worker decides to work 12 full hours, he
would have completed the 48-hour regular time requirement in
four days.
Roque said flexibility in the work schedules
of workers is beneficial because it would allow reduction of
business costs while saving jobs and maintaining competitiveness
and productivity.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines
said the country risks going into a deeper economic slump as a
result of the "widespread destruction of jobs."
"We are now in an extremely vicious cycle.
The economic slowdown is causing mass layoffs of workers
everywhere. The layoffs in turn will have the effect of pulling
the economy further down because of the forfeited income and
lost consumption," said former senator Ernesto Herrera, TUCP
secretary general.
He said the crisis is "so brutal" that even
small neighborhood bakeries that managed to survive soaring
flour prices at the height of last year’s commodity boom are now
closing shop or scaling down production.
Herrera said the country could easily incur
at least P200 billion in economic losses because of the
pervasive layoffs and a considerable decline in exports this
year.
"This estimate assumes that exports will fall
at rate of at least $250 million every month, or a cumulative of
$3 billion for the whole 12 months this year," he said.
He said the $3 billion in lost exports is
equal to P141 billion at $1:P47.
"This is a very conservative estimate,
because in October and November 2008 alone, we already lost more
than $1 billion worth of exports, or $500 million monthly,"
Herrera said.
On top of the lost exports, Herrera said the
economy stands to lose at least another P63 billion in wages and
forfeited consumption for the whole year.
"This is based on Citigroup Inc.’s estimate that some 500,000
Filipino workers have been laid off, or are about to be thrown
out of their jobs due to the collapse of the country’s export
markets," he said. – With Gerard Naval
