PHL unemployment: A problem runs deepThere is a pressing need for a road map towards improving the lag in agriculture and manufacturing to address a stubbornly high unemployment rate.  Analysts interviewed by GMA News Online said a strong output alone – which grew by 7.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2013, the fastest phase in Southeast Asia – cannot address Philippine unemployment, especailly by relying heavily on the services sector.  The United Nations (UN) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have this to say about the Philippine economy: it will continue growing faster than peer economies in Southeast Asia.  Despite the rosy predictions, and the latest performance of the economy, the Philippines has the highest unemployment rate in the region.  “Translating economic growth into employment opportunities remains a significant challenge in the Philippines,” according to the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2014 report released earlier this week.  The National Statistics Office (NSO) has noted the population of working age Filipinos or those over 15 years old are more than 63.1 million. But employment in the services sector’s sunshine industry –business process outsourcing – account for less than a million jobs.

Not enough Jobs are being generated, but not fast enough to make a dent in unemployment rate of 6.5 percent as of end-October 2013, said Emilio Neri Jr., Bank of the Philippine Islands lead economist. “Jobs growth is commendable, but it is not enough,” he said.   The latest unemployment number actually dipped from 6.8 percent in October 2012, but a labor expert said this could be because more Filipinos have given up looking for jobs. 

 Rene Ofreneo, professor at the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP SOLAIR), noted the NSO definition of labor force refer to Filipinos 15 years old and above, employed or unemployed but actively looking for jobs. “A lot of people gave up looking for jobs,” he said.  Workers in the services sector comprised the largest proportion of  those who are employed or 53.4 percent of the total in October 2013, according to the NSO. But Ofreneo said much of the employment in the services sector consists largely of home-based work, or low-productivity jobs in microenterprises, and contractual work in the retail industry.    Because of this reality, the absence of structural reforms will keep the unemployment rate swinging within 6 to 7 percent.  “We have very weak jobs generation, especially good quality jobs which is obtained by an economy growing on its industrial feet,” the UP SOLAIR professor said.  “Government should do bolder reforms.” Quality employment refers to jobs that espouse security of tenure and mandated benefits like health insurance and social security. 

Playing catch up However, strengthening the agriculture and industrial sectors is not a walk in the park.  This entails playing catch up in infrastructure development, which has been neglected for decades, said Ildemarc Bautista, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) research head.  

Addressing the infrastructure gap, which the World Economic Forum identified as a debilitating bottleneck that chokes investments, will help grow manufacturing and agriculture by easing the hurdles in the supply chain.  The whole point mainly revolves on the “investment climate... improving the cost of doing business... infrastructure and logistics,” IMF resident representative Shanaka Jayanath Peiris told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday. “There are also other things that are important. A large part of the population is in agriculture, and it's not only about manufacturing. Farm-to-market roads are also very important,” he added.  Metrobank's Bautista envisions a more synergistic approach to things, saying government may link manufacturing with agriculture as a means to creating quality employment. “Agro-industries, agribusinesses – there are a lot of opportunities in that area,” he said.

'Growth drivers' Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government is aware of areas its needs to improve.  “I’m also more concerned about the quality of employment,” said Balisacan, who is also director general at National Economic and Development Authority.   “That’s why we're pushing for growth drivers like manufacturing, tourism, agribusiness, and infrastructure. Those are the ones that can potentially generate these kinds of high quality employment,” he noted.  Balisacan said government is working on an update to the Aquino administration’s Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, which focuses on creating jobs at the grassroots level and addressing poverty.  

In updating the plan, economic managers have consulted regional stakeholders to ensure that economic initiatives will be felt at the grassroots level. But three years after the current administration took over the helm of government in 2010, UP SOLAIR professor Ofreneo sensed the urgency of the situation.  “They really have to come out with a clear plan soon,” Ofreneo said. –  VS, GMA News

MANILA, Philippines—The number of unemployed Filipinos in the last quarter of 2013 swelled to more than 12 million, making the 7.2-percent growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year, considered the second-fastest after China, far from inclusive.

The unemployment rate rose to 27.5 percent, or an estimated 12.1 million individuals, as 2.5 million Filipinos joined the ranks of the jobless between September and December, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found.

The level of joblessness across the country was almost 6 points higher than the 21.7 percent (some 9.6 million) in the previous quarter, results of the SWS survey conducted from Dec. 11 to 16 showed. The results were first published in BusinessWorld.

Nikka Policarpio, 19, who graduated from the University of Santo Tomas last year with a degree in journalism, is among the millions of unemployed.

Nearly a year after college, Policarpio is already in between jobs since she left her first job last month as a marketing communications specialist.

“I have been applying at different media companies for less than a month now… I want to take a rest before I start working again,” said Policarpio, who resigned from her nine-month stint with a cosmetics company because the low compensation did not match the heavy workload.

The high unemployment rate despite the high GDP growth may have contributed to the pessimistic outlook of Filipinos last December.

A survey by another polling outfit, Pulse Asia, found that 55 percent of Filipinos felt the national quality of life deteriorated in the past 12 months. They also expected the situation to remain the same for the whole of 2014.

‘Understandable’

Malacañang on Monday described as “understandable” the findings of the SWS survey.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda pointed to calamities that hit the country last year to help “explain” why unemployment rate increased to 27.5 percent at the end of 2013.

Lacierda cited Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), which devastated central Philippines last November, and the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu provinces a month earlier.

According to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, some 6 million workers saw their livelihood destroyed or disrupted as a result of Yolanda.

Lacierda said the siege of Zamboanga City by Nur Misuari’s followers “also disrupted” economic activity in the area.

“Certainly, it’s very unfortunate that these things happened, but we have to rise up. That is the role of government: to provide for its people,” he said.

‘Bloodied but unbowed’

“We were bloodied but unbowed,” Lacierda added, borrowing the words of William Ernest Henley’s poem, “Invictus.”

Despite the increase in the unemployment rate, Lacierda said the government would “continue to ensure that our people find employment.”

The latest jobless rate, however, was below the 34.4 percent posted in March 2012.

The unemployment rate has mostly remained over 20 percent since May 2005, according to SWS. It was under 15 percent from 1993 to March 2004, and was within 16.5 percent to 19 percent from August 2004 to March 2005.

Different definitions

The SWS definition of unemployment covers respondents aged 18 and above who are “without a job at present and looking for a job.” This excludes those not looking for work such as housewives, students and retired or disabled persons.

This is different from the official definition in the Labor Force Survey (LFS), which covers persons 15 years and over who are reported not working, looking for work and available for work.

The government’s latest LFS put the official unemployment rate at 6.5 percent (about 2.6 million Filipinos) as of October 2013.

The SWS survey also found that 40 percent of respondents believed there would be more jobs in the next 12 months, 31 percent claimed the number of available jobs would remain the same, while 21 percent expected fewer jobs.

Unemployment picked up sharply among men (from 13.4 percent to 21.2 percent) but remained higher among women (from 32.4 percent to 35.9 percent).

Highest among 18-24

Across age groups, joblessness remained highest among those 18-24 years old (52.3 percent). It was 33.1 percent in the 25-34 age bracket, 25 percent in the 35-44 age bracket and 17.7 percent among those 45 years old and older.

The nationwide unemployment included those who were retrenched (10.4 percent), resigned from their jobs (13.5 percent), and first-time job seekers (3.5 percent).

‘Endo’

Of those retrenched, 6.8 percent did not have their contracts renewed (also called “endo” or end of contract, usually after six months so that the workers won’t be regularized and the employer won’t pay benefits), 1.6 percent had employers whose businesses ceased operations and 2 percent were laid off.

The survey, which used face-to-face interviews with 1,550 Filipinos, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points.—Reports from Rafael L. Antonio and Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research; and Christian V. Esguerra

Rising unemployment and poverty in the PhilippinesBy Dante Pastrana 6 April 2009

The Philippine economy is reeling under the impact of the global recession, with growth rates slowing from 7.3 percent in 2007 to 4.6 percent in 2008 and a further steep decline expected this year. While the country is not as heavily reliant on exports as Singapore or Thailand, exports nevertheless averaged nearly 45 percent of GDP between 2003 and 2008.

Last year exports fell sharply. Merchandise exports contracted by 1.7 percent, electronics by 24.3 percent, garments by 6.5 percent and other manufactured products by 32.9 percent. Exports of mineral products slid 2.92 percent, down from a growth of more than 20 percent in 2007. Agricultural exports measured by value rose 28 percent but only because of rising prices. By volume, this sector also declined by 2 percent.

The Philippines’ other major export—cheap labour—rose sharply by 28 percent, up from 1.4 percent growth in 2007. More than 1.376 million workers left the country looking for work. Compared to 2007, remittances rose last year by 15 percent to $17 billion, according to the World Bank.

Three months into 2009, eight of the country’s top ten export destinations—including the US, its main trading partner—are in recession. As a result, the Philippine government has been forced to revise its forecast for 2009 downward from a range of 3.7-4.7 percent to 3.7-4.4 percent. Other predictions are worse—ranging from 3.8 percent by the Development Bank of Singapore to 1.8 percent by the Union Bank of Switzerland.

New year-on-year data for January 2009 underscored the dimming economic prospects. Exports dropped by 41 percent after falling sharply in December by 40 percent. Exports of manufactured goods, which comprise 84.8 percent of the total, decreased year-on-year by 39.9 percent. Agricultural commodities dropped by 38.5 percent and mineral products by 43 percent.

Recently released Labor Department figures for 2008 attempted to paint a picture of a resilient labour market, highlighting the department’s claim that over 530,000 jobs were generated in 2008. The figure was well below the 924,000 jobs created in 2007 and far less than the government’s annual target of 1.6 million jobs. Nearly half—262,000—were in agriculture, forestry and hunting, with average pay of $US2.7 a day, barely above the UN poverty threshold of $2 a day. The government’s minimum cost-of-living for a family of six is over $18 a day.

The Labor Department report acknowledged that losses of better-paid jobs in other areas had been high. In manufacturing, 135,000 jobs with an average basic daily pay of $6 were axed. The electricity sector lost 5,000 jobs with an average daily pay of $9. In transport, 9,000 jobs with an average daily pay of $7 were destroyed.

Intel Corporation shut down an assembly test facility on Luzon Island and terminated 1,800 workers, more than half its 3,000 workforce. By the midyear, it expected to halt production altogether. Panasonic announced plans to close a battery factory, with 60 employees to be terminated. The business processing and outsourcing company, Accenture, announced a 50 percent cut in its 1,000-strong workforce. Another electronics company, Amkor Technology, retrenched 1,500 workers, 20 percent of its workforce. More recently, Fujitsu announced 2,000 job cuts last month, to take effect on April 18.

The official estimate for unemployment in 2008 was 7.4 percent or 2.7 million—an increase of 0.1 percent from 2007. These figures, however, are a gross understatement. The government defines the unemployed as those who are simultaneously without work, looking for work and immediately available for work.

Moreover, “working” is broadly defined to include unpaid work for family businesses (a small farm or a small variety store) and working for oneself (street vendors, jeepney drivers). If the 4.1 million unpaid workers in family

businesses, and just half of the over 10 million “self-employed” were included, the jobless total would be more than 11 million people among those 15 years and older.

In its fourth quarter survey, the Social Weather Stations (SWS), a survey group, found that 11 million people or 27.9 percent of the adult labour force (over 18 years) were unemployed. The result was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,500 people across the country. Since 2005, SWS surveys have shown an unemployment rate in double figures. In 2007, 17.5 percent were unemployed despite record economic growth of more than 7 percent.

In another survey, SWS reported a record 23.7 percent increase in the number of families experiencing hunger at least once in three months, to 4.3 million families or more than 20 million people.According to a 2006 government survey, more than 27.6 million Filipinos or 32.9 percent of the population are poor. The figure includes those who could not “provide in a sustained manner for their minimum basic needs for food, health, education, housing, and other social amenities of life”. The number of “subsistence poor”—those unable to provide enough to eat—were over 12.2 million. The figures are undoubtedly worse today.

The government estimates that 935,700 workers are at risk of losing their jobs both locally and abroad this year. Over 362,000 jobs in the export sector are under threat—90 percent of those are in the electronics, garments and ignition wiring sub-sectors.

More than 500,000 overseas jobs are under threat. There are 129,000 temporary workers in the recession-wracked US. Also in recession are South Korea and Taiwan, which between them employ 200,000 Filipino factory workers. Another 48,000 housemaids are employed in Hong Kong and Singapore, which are both contracting economically.

In addition, the government estimates that 130,000 seamen on cruise ships are facing layoffs. Japanese ship owners, according to Agence France Presse, have notified the government that more than 40,000 crew members on car carriers, bulk carriers and container ships will be laid off as world trade continues to slow.

President Gloria Arroyo’s administration has responded by shifting the burden onto working people. Labor regulations are set to be relaxed to allow

for unpaid overtime and a compressed work week. Nearly half the workforce is employed in the so-called informal sector where workers are not even protected by the country’s weak labor code and regulations and receive less than the minimum legal wage.

As the economy sinks further and unemployment continues to grow, a social explosion is building up as working people find it increasingly impossible to make ends meet.

nemployment means being out of job or a situation where the individual is wiling to work but has none.

This article brings and discusses the main issues/effects of the unemployment on our society and economy.

How does unemployment affect the economy?

Some of the well-known effects of unemployment on the economy are:

Unemployment financial costsThe government and the nation suffer. In many countries the government has to pay the unemployed some benefits. The greater the number of the unemployed or the longer they are without work the more money the government has to shell out.Therefore, the nation not only has to deal with the lost income and decreased production but also with additional cost.

Spending power The spending power of an unemployed person and his/her family decreases drastically and they would rather save than spend their money, which in turn affects the economy adversely.

Reduced spending power of the employedIncreased taxes and the insecurity about their own work may affect the spending power of the working people as well and they too may start to spend less than before thus affecting the economy and also the society in a negative manner.

Recession With the increase rates of unemployment other economy factors are

significantly affected, such as: the income per person, health costs, quality of health-care, standard of leaving and poverty.

All these affect not just the economy but the entire systems and the society in general. Here are some aspects of the impact of unemployment on our society:

The effect of unemployment on our society

Unemployment affects not just the person himself but also his/her family and in the long run the society where he lives.

Unemployment brings with it despair, unhappiness and anguish. It forces people to live their lives in a way they do not wish to – The life expectancy is negatively affected.Life expectancy is the ease by which people living in a time/place are able to satisfy their needs/wants. Here are the main aspects:

1. Mental health: Mental health problems like: Law self-confidence, feeling unworthy, depression and hopelessness. With the lost income and the frustration involved in it, the recently unemployed may develop negative attitudes toward common things in life and may feel that all sense of purpose is lost. Frequent emotions could be – low self-esteem, inadequateness and feeling dejected and hopeless.

2. Health diseases: The unemployment overall tension can increase dramatically general health issues of individuals.

3. Tension at home: Quarrels and arguments at home front which may lead to tension and increased numbers of divorces etc.

4. Political issues: Loss of trust in administration and the government which may lead to political instability

5. Tension over taxes rise: Unemployment also brings up discontent and frustration amongst the tax paying citizens. In order to meet the demands of the unemployment fund the government many a times may have to increase the taxes thus giving way to restlessness amongst the tax paying citizens.

6. Insecurity amongst employees: The prevailing unemployment and the plight of the unemployed people and their families may create fear and insecurity even in the currently employed people.

7. Crime and violence: Increase in the rate of crime.

8. Suicide cases: Increase in the rate of suicide attempts and actual suicides as well.

9. Social outing: Unemployment may bring a decrease in social outings and interactions with other people, including friends.

10. Stigma: Unemployment brings with more than just ‘no work’. It also brings with it the disgrace that the person has to bear. Nobody likes to be termed as unemployed.

11. Standard of leaving: In times of unemployment the competition for jobs and the negotiation power of the individual decreases and thus also the living standard of people with the salaries packages and income reduced.

12. Employment gaps: To further complicate the situation the longer the individual is out of job the more difficult it becomes to find one. Employers find employment gasps as a negative aspect. No one wants to hire a person who has been out of work for some time even when there’s no fault of the individual per say.

13. Lose of skills’ usage: The unemployed is not able to put his/her skills to use. And in a situation where it goes on for too long the person may have to lose some of his/her skills.

It is saddening that despite the rapid economic expansion for the past two years, millions of Filipinos remain unemployed. This is what economists refer to as “jobless growth,” a phenomenon that afflicts many developing countries, debunking the myth that economic growth automatically translates to employment and poverty reduction.

Halfway into his six-year term, President Aquino last week challenged his Cabinet to come up with an action plan for poverty reduction, mainly through job generation. He presided over a rare full-Cabinet meeting after a Social Weather Stations survey showed that the unemployment rate in 2013 had worsened to 27.5 percent, equivalent to an estimated 12.1 million, as 2.5 million Filipinos joined the ranks of the jobless between September and December. And yet the economy expanded by 7.2 percent, the second-fastest in Asia after China’s.

There are several proposals to address unemployment, but sadly, there are no short-term ones. These measures are well known to the Aquino administration and its predecessors. These involve structural reforms that will make it conducive for investors to put money in factories and brick-and-mortar industries. Only recently, the Asian Development Bank, in a publication titled “Taking the Right Road to Inclusive Growth,” reiterated that the Philippines’ failure to boost its industrial sector was a key reason its economic growth remained far from being inclusive.“The Philippine economy’s chronic problems of high unemployment, slow poverty reduction and low investment are reflections of the sluggish industrialization,” the ADB said, pointing out that it is the industrial sector, which includes manufacturing, that should drive the economy to substantially reduce unemployment and poverty. Economic growth during the past years had been fueled by the service sector, mainly the business process outsourcing industry. According to the ADB, the industrial sector, compared with the service sector, has the better ability to create more job opportunities for the poor and a much higher multiplier effect on the economy. The ADB suggested more government support for the industrial sector through investments in education, skills training and infrastructure to achieve inclusive economic growth.In June 2013, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, an economist before becoming a politician, had a mouthful to say about the buzz phrase “inclusive growth.” He suggested that the government invest in the countryside to address the high unemployment rate, warning that “social injustice is very much stubborn and structural, historically persistent and policy-immune,” as evidenced by the huge job losses despite the country’s stellar economic growth.

14. Saying that the economy’s problems had been “overstudied and overdiscussed but undersolved,” Salceda called on the government to shift the focus of its investments strategy from Metro Manila to the countryside. “Go for low-lying fruits, or where the growth is easy because the base is lower—and where else but the countryside? How far can we squeeze growth out of the National Capital Region when in fact the solution is decongestion?” he said, lamenting that private

investments were concentrated on the property sector, which he labeled as an industry only of the rich.

15. The agriculture sector is a very good example of where investments should go. Why should we content ourselves with just producing and exporting raw copra or bananas, or the fresh catch from our seas? The government must make it conducive for investors to put money in factories and manufacturing facilities to bring the agricultural sector a step higher—processed agricultural products. Our farmers and fishers need not forever be farmers and fishers; they must upgrade to become processed-coconut producers or canned-fish manufacturers.

16. We are not lacking in solutions to the worsening unemployment problem. The private sector, not the government, is the engine of economic growth. However, our investment climate is such that prospective investors are

17. either turned off by bureaucratic red tape or stymied by regulatory restrictions. We need only political will on the part of the government to build roads, sea and air ports and other infrastructure, and remove restrictions to the flow of local and foreign investments, and for the private sector to do its part by investing in job-creating activities, particularly in the countryside.

The latest labor statistics show the stubbornness of the unemployment problem in this country in the face of a respectable growth rate. This has forced the country’s Chief Executive to call for a meeting of his official family to discuss the issue. Indeed the level of unemployment and under-employment in this country which involves no less than a quarter of the working force rooted in underperforming sectors of the economy is the primary cause of the income maldistribution and high poverty rates.The consensus of most economists here and abroad with regard to the local unemployment situation appears to have the following key features:

The Need To Promote A More Appropriate Balance Between Rural And Urban Economic Opportunities

The main thrust of this activity is the need for the integrated development of the rural sector, the spread of small-scale industries throughout the countryside, and the reorientation of economic activity and social investments toward the rural areas.

Full development of small-scale, labor-intensive industries

The expansion of these mostly small-scale and labor-intensive industries in both urban and rural areas can be accomplished in two ways: directly, through government intervention and indirectly through investment incentives for the private sector. This is because the consumption activities of barrio folk demand less import-intensive and more labor-intensive than that of the rich (there are less import-oriented shopping malls in the provinces!)

Choosing appropriate labor -intensive technologies of production

One of the principal factors inhibiting the success of any long-run program of employment creation both in urban industry and rural agriculture is the almost complete technological dependence of Third World nations on imported (typically labor saving) machinery and equipment from the developed countries. Both domestic and international efforts must be made reduce this dependence by developing technological research and adaptation capacities in the developing countries themselves. Such efforts might first be linked to the development of small-scale, labor-intensive rural and urban enterprises. They could also focus on the development of low-cost, labor-intensive methods of meeting rural infrastructure needs, including roads, irrigation and drainage system, and essential health and educational services.

This is an area where scientific and technological assistance from the developed countries could prove extremely fruitful.

Creating a more direct link between education and employment

The phenomenon of the educated unemployed calls into question the appropriateness and relevance of the educational system, especially at the higher levels in this country.

The creation of attractive economic opportunities in rural areas would make it easier to redirect educational system toward the needs of rural development.

The present educational systems, being transplant of Western systems, are oriented toward preparing students to function in a small modern sector which can absorb only so much of school-leavers. Many of the necessary skills for development therefore remain largely neglected.

Reduce rural migration

The last half-century in this country has been associated with urbanization which in turn has attracted migration from thru province bringing down the total population in agriculture.

The arrival of these urban migrants has not only helped to exercise a continuous downward pressure on real wages but also contributed to the problem of urban unemployment if not social problems.

Remove capital intensive bias

The failure of the urban industrial sector to provide more jobs (i.e. to absorb more from the swelling pool of the available urban labor force) may be attributed to the over-all scarcity of capital and to its increasingly excessive concentration in large-scale industries using increasingly capital-intensive technologies. The consequently slow expansion in the demand for labor was caused partly by policies which biased industrialization in capital-intensive directions and the consequent benign neglect of agriculture specifically the food sector which could have been fertile grounds for employment given an enlightened rural mobilization policies and agrarian reforms.

Employment strategy package

Post-war growth in the Philippines, dominated by a capital intensive consumer import substitution strategy with its bias further against labour-using technology quickly ran aground in the mid-nineties. Unfortunately the failed strategy did not pay sufficient attention to the mobilization of resources in the traditional rural sector. Consequently, the demand by the urban industrial sector for labour failed to expand quickly enough to absorb the increasing supply, continuously augmented as it was by the “premature” migration of a rural population seeking more remunerative job opportunities not available in the provinces. This led not only to real wage stagnation, but

more importantly to the persistence of open and disguised unemployment, and the worsening income distribution. Had it not been for the safety valve of overseas employment the poverty situation in this country would have entered serious proportions.

This lead us to a two-pronged strategy package as essential to eradicating the pesky unemployment problem – the full mobilization of the preponderant rural sector, and a labour-intensive industrial diversification drive for a more dynamic industrial sector.

The diversification drive must emphasis the move towards labor-intensive industrialization to service the burgeoning domestic market of close to a 100 million people and the export market export. For such a non-traditional export drive to be successful, past biases against the use of labour must be corrected so that international markets can be penetrated with wider participation by medium- and small-scale entrepreneurs.

5 Responses to Solving the unemployment problem

1. Annie says:

March 6, 2014 at 12:56 am

One reason left out in the above article As to why so many Filipinos are unemployed, and thus poor, is the unsustainable rapid population growth in our country. The number of Filipinos of working ages entering the job market every year far out-strips the number of jobs our economy could produce resulting therefore in high unemployment.

We have to slow down our birth rate to reduce unemployment and poverty.

2. Pedro Villa says:

March 5, 2014 at 4:11 pm

In this country it is unfortunate that the studies, conclusions, and suggestions of economists and experts in their respective fields take a backseat to our politics and our ideologies.

Take the case of agriculture. Aside from graft and corruption, some government policies and programs are anti-farmer resulting in the state of agriculture today which is last place amongst our Asian neighbors and an aging farmer. The average age of the farmer is 55 and 59 for our rice farmers. The government has instituted a Cheap Food Policy that favors the consumer over the farmer-producer. The government caps the profit of the farmer but doesnt give any support when prices go below his cost of production. CARP has also made sure that the farmer will forever be poor by restricting him to 0-3 hectare limit and prevented from using his land as collateral. Not to mention that plantation crops are applied a flower pot sized area.

Unless and until we learn to solve our economic problems with economic solutions(not political) we will always be backward or extinct.

3. Claro Apolinar says:

March 5, 2014 at 7:58 am

Mr. Romero, all your proposals are needed to make ours a more prosperous and less poverty-stricken country.My question is this–Why did you and your friends in the media, in the administration of the late Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Arroyo and in the first three years of Benigno Aquino NOT FIGHT FOR THESE.Why did you and the great economists of the UP, La Salle, Ateneo and UA&P allow our industrializetion to be destroyed by the polcymakers of these presidents and our agriculture and agri-business to be abandoned?

4. Tinoy says:

March 5, 2014 at 7:42 am

How can you solve this kind of problem if our government now is very biased towards favoring the businesses of the rich few oligarchs in our country. Take the case of power industry (controlled by the Salim Group, Aboitiz, SM, Lopez), water utilities (Salim Group, Ayala, Lopez), DOTC projects (DMCI, SM, Gokongwei) and even the PPP for school bldgs awarded to large group of conglomerates not to mention also the prime hospitals where our poor patients go are sold to private companies. No more money and time to help our farmers and skilled and ordinary laborers. Our GOCC’s and NGO’s that should deliver the necessities to our poor populace are being corrupted by our politicians and are now destined to be phased-out.

5. Ricardo Harina says:

March 5, 2014 at 5:20 am

The simple solution for the Philippines after amending EPIRA LAW is to invest in State of the Art Combined Cycle Power Plants in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao that will provide STABLE, CHEAP and ENVIRONMENT friendly POWER that will encourage Foreign and Local Investors to invest which will generate employment, prevent migration here and abroad and provide fast economic activity. This may take 2 to 3 years to build once started.Our present and future plans on energy as envisioned by Sec. Petilla for this country is hopeless because it will not provide STABLE, CHEAP and ENVIRONMENT friendly POWER.