TUCP urges for massive job generation in the President's legacy projects to ease the COVID-19 triggered unemployment and poverty

On the President's 5th SONA

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) urges for massive job generation to be included in the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 27, 2020, to ease the COVID-19 triggered unemployment and poverty citing the President’s legacy projects, particularly in the P35.91 billion 102-km Mindanao Railway Project (MRP), Tagum-Davao-Digos segment as having great potential for employment and development.

“The Mindanao Railway Project of the President, although a single-track diesel-run railway, has great potential to generate the much-needed jobs. It will benefit not just the workers in Tagum-Davao-Digos areas but from as far as BARMM, Regions X, XII and CARAGA if agri-industrial hubs will be developed and connected to the planned eight (8) stations which are in Tagum; Carmen; Panabo; Mundiang; Davao Terminal; Toril; Sta Cruz; and Digos,” TUCP Partylist and TUCP President Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza pointed out.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) had earlier reported that the MRP’s Tagum-Davao-Digos segment’s design and construction will start in third quarter of this year and are expected to be completed by end of 2021.

“We do not need to reinvent the wheel or embark on new grand plans to create jobs, we just have to ensure that the ‘Build, Build, Build’ and the legacy projects of the President would be for the development and industrialization in the countryside to spur employment, and not just mere rail tracks, widened and asphalted roads,” Mendoza explained. “The President’s SONA should direct the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), DOLE, DOTr and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to ensure job creation,” he suggested.

The TUCP earlier projected 5 million to 10 million unemployed workers due to the pandemic, and 3 to 4 million in floating status under a “no work, no pay” arrangement, while the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a 17.7 percent unemployment rate which accounts for 7.3 million unemployed in the workforce in the second quarter of 2020, nearly a four-time increase from the 5.1 percent unemployment rate in the same quarter of 2019.

The PSA also reported double-digit unemployment rates in all regions, the highest was in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) at 29.8 percent. The rest of the regions in Mindanao island: Region IX registered an unemployment rate of 23.9 percent, Region X at 11.1 percent, Region XI at 17.9 percent, Region XII at 21.2 percent and CARAGA at 12.3 percent.

The SWS survey conducted in May 2020 noted that eighty-three percent of Filipinos believe that their quality of life has worsened in the last 12 months. The survey has 294 respondents from Metro Manila, 1,645 from Balance Luzon, 792 from Visayas, and 1,279 from Mindanao. While a separate SWS survey in the same period showed that 16.7 percent or an estimated 4.2 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger at least once for the past three months.

"We reiterate our call to the Government on the urgency to respond to the magnitude of the displacement of workers. Indeed, some companies are operating but it will get worse before it will get better. Companies are operating in half capacities to finish the pre-pandemic job orders and there are no new orders coming in as the economies of our markets abroad are in recession. Closures will come in the fourth quarter of the year with no assurance of rebound in 2021. There is no assurance of foreign remittance as our OFWs are coming home and those who stayed overseas have no jobs while our seafarers have become quarantine costly and unable to board the ships on time due to bottlenecks in the green lanes. It should not be ‘business-as-usual’ mode, we need to have a massive job creation program or a Philippine Agri-Industrial Development Program to stimulate the economy, and not rely on labor export or foreign investments,” TUCP Vice President Luis Corral said.

He also pointed out that this is President Duterte’s golden opportunity to “BUILD BACK BETTER” using the country’s “AAA-minus credit rating” to fund a multi-trillion-peso economic stimulus package so that the credit rating is felt by the Filipino people.

- TUCP Labor Center

Stringent rules hamper OFW repatriation efforts

Stringent and at times discriminatory regulations imposed by local government units in treating returning constituents have provided a major setback in the national government’s efforts to repatriate stranded and displaced overseas Filipino workers.

This complaint aired by officials of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration prompted the House Committee on Overseas Filipinos to call local executives to a virtual meeting that would attempt to resolve the issue.

OWWA officials disclosed that a number of LGUs have barred returning constituents despite the fact that they have tested negative for COVID-19.

National government agencies such as OWWA have claimed helplessness in reasoning out with LGU executives as the latter insist that they they have the authority to protect their localities from COVID-19 threat and are protected by the local autonomy provisions of the law.

Many LGUs are reportedly overcautious in granting clearances for the return of OFWs who are actually their constituents.

TUCP party-list Rep. Democrito Mendoza, chairman of the House Committee on Overseas Filipino Welfare, advised officials to seek President Duterte’s intercession on behalf of returning OFWs.

“We have to get around that problem. If the President can just speak to the political leadership of local government units, I think this will be resolved,” said Mendoza, who presided over a virtual meeting on the repatriation operations for the thousands of displaced and stranded OFWs.

In the meantime, Mendoza said the committee will attempt to resolve the controversy by inviting LGU executives to a virtual meeting.

Invitations will be sent to the heads of Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines and the League of Provinces of the Philippines. Presidents of League of Cities of the Philippines and League of Municipalities of the Philippines may also be asked to participate in the meeting.

Both the Department of Foreign Affairs and OWWA gave positive reports about the bid to repatriate OFWs from various parts of the world, especially those from the Middle East.

DFA Underscretary Sarah Lou Arriola said the processing of the return of 50,000 OFWs is expected this month.

On the other hand, Director Alice Visperas of the International Labor Affairs Bureau revealed that the total number of displaced Filipinos abroad has reached 341,701.

At least 70,533 have been repatriated while 21,107 are ready to go home.

There are at least 169,000 OFWs who are displaced temporarily or permanently who have not yet signified any intention to go home.

Of the number of OFWs abroad, at least 5,353 have tested positive for COVID-19, said Visperas. - by Ben Rosario