Belmonte: Filipinos should aspire to improve skills

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte on Thursday said Filipinos should aspire to improve their capabilities and skills to become drivers of growth.

“We should not stagnate and remain as a nation of factory workers, or be satisfied with being workers of foreign companies,” Belmonte said in his Labor Day message.

“We should already be laying down the foundations for creating a quality human resource of entrepreneurs, technology specialists and developers, inventors and other economic production leaders,” he said.

Belmonte said in a statement that people should take a more holistic view of human resource development, which is crucial in bringing about sustainable socioeconomic growth.

He said the country should also harness the skills of its own people to improve its condition, noting that Filipinos working abroad also contribute to the growth of other countries.

“Why then should we not take a long-term view and develop mutually beneficial programs to improve the quality of our human resources for the benefit of our very own nation,” he said.

Quality human resource

According to Belmonte, developing human resource goes hand in hand with health programs, education and technology development, agriculture and food production, peace and security, environment protection, human rights and a stepped-up battle against corruption.

He also said issues concerning workers’ benefits are important, but there are other equally important matters that must be considered in order to build a quality human resource in the country.

Belmonte said the House of Representatives would try to continue to be “responsive and supportive” of workers’ needs even as they are working on laws to bring about a strong, creative, quality human resource.

“We are dedicated to crafting significant measures aimed at uplifting not only your lives, but also the lives of all our countrymen,” he said.

Labor groups have long been calling for an across-the-board wage increase as well as an end to the practice of contractualization but the bills seeking to bring about these remain pending at the House committee level.