MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the generation of one million emergency jobs in the first half of 2009 as part of government's efforts to cushion the impact of the global economic crisis on the country, Malacañang officials said.

The employment generation program was presented to the President during a full Cabinet meeting in her ancestral home in Iligan City on Tuesday. It was the first Cabinet meeting of the year.

The emergency jobs include the street sweepers or "pulis oyster" and hollowblock-making, National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) lead convener Domingo Panganiban said. It also includes production of organic fertilizer and "bantay dagay" (sea patrol) and "bantay gubat" (forest patrol), Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.

"This emergency employment will be done nationwide by the different members of the Cabinet, which are over and above existing projects of agencies," Dureza, who was with the President, said in a phone interview with reporters in Malacañang.

Last week, former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno had warned that 11 million jobs could be lost when the full impact of the global recession hits the country in 2009.

"We can never tell what is really going to happen... That's his estimate," Dureza said of Diokno's warning.