Businessmen back talks between traders and government

CEBU – Two Cebuano business leaders are supporting the move to hold an Executive-Legislative Summit, an initiative pushed by Sen. Francisco “Kiko” Pangilinan wherein government can sit with the business sector and come up with means to create more jobs to buffer the effects of the worldwide financial meltdown.

The summit also aims to let businessmen air their concerns on so-called anti-business legislations.

Robert Go, chairman of the Philippine Retailers Association and past president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the move is timely considering that there are several legislations that reportedly discourage rather than attract investments. 

“Our laws should be free…enterprise and tax holiday must be granted for labor intensive companies to encourage hiring of workers,” Go said.

Go said one of the major reasons why there is huge unemployment is the high cost of labor in the Philippines, which only benefits a few. One way to counter it, he said, is to bring down the cost of labor so that more people can be employed.

“It should instead be lax and promote cheaper employment as long as more workers get jobs. We want that private business will be supported by the Executive and Congress and not the other way around,” he said.

He also suggested that should the summit push through, emphasis should be given on job creation and that all major chambers of commerce must be made to participate.

For his part, Eric Mendoza, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the summit is relevant so that businessmen and the government can jointly assess industries and workers affected by the global financial crisis so that mitigating measures can be put in place.

Pangilinan earlier called on Malacañang and Congress to sit with the business sector to fast-track measures in creating more jobs domestically in the face of massive layoffs of workers.

Meanwhile, Sanlakas-Sugbo spokesperson Jose Aaron Pedrosa, said the summit should have workers representation otherwise the summit might just be used as a means to bail out capitalists rather than formulate measure for economic relief.

Recent data from the National Statistics Office reveals that the country’s unemployment rate has increased to 2.53 million as of October this year, as opposed to last year’s 2.25 million.

The data also showed that more jobs were provided in 2008 with 34.5 million workers employed, an increase of 861,000 from 2007’s 33.7 million employed workers.But Pedrosa contended the data deserves but scant credence.

“To reduce the number of unemployed, there has been a redefinition of terms, a person who for the last six months decides not to hunt for job for failing to find one is excluded from the labor sector. This exclusion results in the shrinking of unemployment levels,” Pedrosa said. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO (THE FREEMAN)