MANILA, Philippines—One of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s economic managers on Monday gave the public a dose of reality, saying only around 500,000 jobs could be created this year—way below Malacañang’s ambitious target of three million.

Ralph Recto, director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said the revised jobs goal could not accommodate some 900,000 college graduates and non-graduates who would be looking for work this year.

Around 800,000 workers in export-oriented industries, such as electronics, are also “vulnerable” to the global financial crisis, Recto said.

“So there’s a deficiency,” he said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

Secretary Domingo Panganiban of the National Anti-Poverty Commission had earlier said that the number of jobs expected to be created under the Comprehensive Livelihood, Emergency Employment Program would be increased from one million to three million.

As of Jan. 28, Panganiban said the program had come up with 81,162 jobs and received a funding boost with a fresh allocation of P18 billion.

Realistic, optimistic

Recto was alternately realistic and optimistic about the prospects of new jobs amid the crisis. Citing targets from the Medium Term Development Plan, he said the government should be producing about a million jobs every year.

“But you know, it’s going to be tough to do a million jobs this year,” he said. “Going by figures last year, you grew 4.6 percent. All things being equal, assuming you grew by that same amount, then you can create half a million jobs.”

Recto said critics and doomsayers were committing “intellectual dishonesty” by crying over the number of Filipinos who would supposedly lose their jobs. In the information technology sector alone, the estimate was 60,000 job losses.

Much of the numbers, he said, did not necessarily fall under the category of Filipinos looking for jobs but found none, his real measure of unemployment.

In the IT sector where workers are highly skilled, Recto said it would not be difficult for them to find new jobs.

“Sometimes, we got to pick ourselves up and not always kick ourselves downward,” he said.

National Resiliency Plan

Much of the government’s job generation strategy will depend on its P330-billion National Resiliency Plan, the details of which were prepared by Recto.

The President on Monday directed Recto to fully explain the mechanics of the program even as questions about its fund sources and allegations that it would be used to finance the administration’s campaign in 2010 abound.

Recto said many of the projects would “bear fruit 18 to 24 months from now.”

Of the P330-billion package, P160 billion will come straight from the P1.415-trillion national budget this year, according to Recto. The amount represents the total increase in the 2009 national expenditure program compared with last year’s.

More than 3,100 infrastructure projects are lined up in the national budget, he said.

With lower collection of corporate and income taxes, P40 billion is expected to be under the disposal of companies and individuals, Recto said.

The tax cuts will “spur domestic demand consumption in the economy,” he added.

Lower corporate tax take

Recto said the reduction in corporate income taxes—which would go down to 30 percent from 35 percent beginning this year—would help companies avoid having to lay off workers.

Another P100 billion will represent a joint undertaking between the government and the private sector. Initial discussions pointed to private companies investing in government projects, with total investments amounting to P50 billion.

The other half will come from investments from state pension funds, such as the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System.

The remaining P30 billion will be the total amount of increased benefits coming from agencies, such as the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Pag-Ibig Fund, SSS and GSIS.

“I think it’s only appropriate during this crisis that they improve benefits to members even for a limited period for the next 12 to 18 months, at least,” Recto said.

Nonperforming assets

On Monday, a major labor organization challenged the government to harness the nonperforming assets (NPAs) in “productively engaging” some 500,000 workers that have been laid off or are about to lose their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, in a statement, said the NEDA should promptly conduct an inventory of all NPAs, including those owned by government-owned and -controlled corporations.

It should ascertain assets that are immediately useful, and prepare a list of possible ways to make them productive, TUCP secretary general Ernesto Herrera said.

The former senator said the TUCP was ready to help mobilize unemployed, able-bodied citizens to make the assets gainful, whether these be idle public lands that can be used to grow food or vacant buildings that can be used to support a contact center.

The group could also tap local unions and credit cooperatives to make full use of the NPAs.

“In the process, we can provide gainful employment to the jobless while producing valuable goods and services,” Herrera said. With a report from Jerome Aning