Militants to Aquino: Don't give Filipinos false hopes about jobs

A militant group cautioned President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III against giving people "false hopes" after the president said 43,000 jobs will be generated within the next three years. Upon his arrival on Tuesday morning from a one-week working visit to the United States (US), Aquino announced that more than 43,000 new jobs will be generated in the Philippines in the next three years. However, Migrante Middle East likened Aquino's promise of jobs to counting eggs that have not yet been hatched. "Mr. Aquino is already counting eggs that haven’t yet hatched... It’s still intangible. Mr. President, please, don’t give your kababayans false hopes," Migrante-ME coordinator John Leonard Monterona said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. Earlier, Aquino said he urged California-based companies to invest in the country, creating some 10,000 jobs. On the other hand, Monterona doubted that these 10,000 jobs promised by multinational and transnational companies were permanent. “It’s in our long business history that most of the TNCs and MNCs that had had their business operations back there in the Philippines, never created permanent and high-paying jobs," he said. "Most of the time, especially those companies inside the business enclaves or hubs in key cities and municipalities in the Philippines, offer contractual jobs. Even in the business process outsourcing business, or call center companies, we all know that the regularization rate there is relatively too low," he added. He said the government can create good-paying and permanent jobs in the Philippines by pushing for industrialization. “All we need to do, in order to create good paying and permanent jobs in the Philippines is to push for an industrialization by empowering the agriculture sector, but minus the dependency to these companies that if they find it hard to extract super-profits in the Philippines, they will relocate to our neighboring underdeveloped countries to continue their business," Monterona said. He said that if MNCs and TNCs "find it hard to extract super-profits in the Philippines, they will relocate to our neighboring underdeveloped countries to continue their business." He said real economic development would only happen if there is a just and well-planned economic system, wherein the distribution of the country’s wealth is even and not hoarded by a privileged few. Earlier, the militant umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) criticized Aquino for missing an opportunity to take up the Visiting Forces Agreement with US President Barack Obama II. “It was a missed opportunity to assert our national interest on such a crucial issue like the VFA. Between the issue of the World War 2 American ammunition dump in Corregidor and the permanent and continuing presence of US soldiers in Mindanao, surely the latter has more far-reaching implications on our Constitution and our sovereignty. The VFA is a long-festering problem in RP-US relations yet the ammo dump in Corregidor seemed the more important topic for the President," said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. “Whatever happened to Mr. Aquino’s campaign promise of having the VFA reviewed?" he asked. –VVP, GMANews.TV