Govt eyes creation of three million new jobs

MANILA, Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's P330-billion emergency livelihood program for the poor and out-of-school youth is expected to create three million jobs this year. Secretary Domingo Panganiban of the National Anti-Poverty Commission on Tuesday said some 1.5 million jobs are expected to be created and filled by June 30 alone and another 1.5 million by year-end, or a total of three million jobs for the year. The Arroyo administration had initially targeted the creation of one million emergency jobs as part of the program to pump-prime the economy this year, but based on "indications of what has been reported to us… we might go beyond 1.5 million after June 30," Panganiban said. He said that by the second half of the year the government can create another P1.5 million jobs, or approximately three million jobs for the whole year. The original allocation for the emergency employment program was P300 billion, but this has been raised to P330 billion. The additional amount of P30 billion will be contributed by government-owned and controlled corporations. The jobs to be generated by the emergency employment program include road maintenance, organic farming, farm-to-market roads, rehabilitation of government school buildings, hospitals, and irrigation systems, janitorial and security services for government installations, and "bantay-dagat" projects, among others. Some 100,000 jobs are expected to be created and filled this month alone, with 50,000 jobs already created during the first half of the month for road maintenance, Panganiban said. The new jobs to be created under the program will make a "big dent on poverty (incidence) by about 25 percent," he added. Panganiban said that for purposes of project implementation, the country has been divided into various regions, with each region placed under Cabinet members. - Jose Torres Jr., GMANews.TV