Presidential aspirant Senator Grace Poe. FILE PHOTO
Presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe disclosed on Wednesday her plans to achieve her goal of creating over a million jobs a year should she get elected president in the May national elections.
Poe said that if she wins, her administration will work to generate 1.7 million jobs every year for six years as a concrete step in fighting poverty, the root of criminality in the country.
READ: Poe vows to curb poverty as president
And they could achieve this goal, she said, by developing the manufacturing and tourism sectors, along with the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to create employment opportunities for Filipinos.
“Sa aking gobyerno, sisiguraduhin ko na ang kahirapan ay mababawasan, kung hindi man mawawala, sapagkat bawat Pilipino ay bibigyan ko ng sapat na pagkakataon, trabaho, sapat na kitang permanente para sa inyong pamilya,” Poe said when she campaigned in Camarines Sur province last week.
(In my government, I will ensure that poverty will be lessened if not completely eliminated because every Filipino will be given enough employment opportunities and sufficient and permanent source of income for their families.)
A statement released by her office pointed out that as of January 2016, the unemployment rate was at 5.8 percent.
“Of the jobless, 45 percent were high school graduates. A third of the unemployed are in the 25-34 age group while 48 percent are in the 15-24 (age group),” the statement said.
To create jobs, Poe said, she will give small MSMEs easier access to financial assistance so that more Filipinos would be encouraged to venture into business.
Of the 944,897 business enterprises operating in the country as of 2012, the statement said, 99.58 percent or 940,886 are MSMEs. These MSMEs account for 61 percent of jobs in the country, it further said.
Poe said she would also strengthen the manufacturing sector, where workers could get higher pay compared to the agriculture and services sector.
“Susuportahan natin na mas dumami ang manufacturing sa ating bansa sapagkat kung dumami ang ‘Made in the Philippines,’ mas maraming trabahong malilikha para sa inyo,” she said during a recent visit to Laguna, one of the country’s manufacturing hubs.
(I would give my full support to the manufacturing sector in our country because more employment opportunities would be created as more products would be “Made in the Philippines.”)
The manufacturing sector, which comprises more than half of the Philippines’ industrial sector, accounts for almost a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Poe said she would also support infrastructure projects that would strengthen the tourism industry, which contributes 1 of every 10 jobs in the country.
“Kung ako ang magiging pangulo ninyo, hindi ako magiging kampante sa pagbubunyi kung gaano tumaas ang ating GDP at ng iba pang istadistika na numero lamang sa karaniwang tao. Ang titingnan ko ay kung bumubuti ba ang buhay ng mga nasa ibaba dahil iyon ang tunay na indikasyon ng kaunlaran,” she said.
(If I would be elected president, I would not be complacent over the GDP rise and similar statistics as these are only numbers to ordinary people. I would look at the improvement of the people’s lives because it is the real indication of progress.)
Poe and her running mate Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero have committed to allot P300 billion for agriculture, the country’s second largest employer and also the poorest sector. While it employs 31 percent of the total labor force, agriculture accounts for only 11 percent of the GDP—the lowest contribution to the economy.
READ: Escudero lays down programs to combat poverty
“Ito ang sektor na nagbibigay ng pagkain sa atin; at hindi lamang ‘yon, isang sektor na tila yata napabayaan ng ilang dekada. Dapat mabigyan ng tamang lugar kung saan ang ating mga magsasaka ay hindi na mahihirapan magbenta ng kanilang produkto at hindi na kayo lolokohin ng mga middlemen,” she said.
(Agriculture supplies us with the food we eat but it seems this sector has been neglected for decades now. There must be an appropriate place wherein our farmers would not have the difficulty to sell their products and they would not be deceived by the middlemen.)
Under her “Gobyernong may Puso (Government with a Heart),” Poe promised that there will be free irrigation, more climate-resilient post-harvest facilities and well-placed agro-industrial zones. RAM
