Create jobs or lose your jobs, Cabinet told

Create jobs and you keep your jobs.

This was the marching order of President Arroyo to members of her Cabinet, a number of whom are uncertain if they will still be at their posts by next year.

Celebrating Christmas Day at the family residence in La Vista, Quezon City, Mrs. Arroyo told Palace reporters yesterday that job creation is the priority concern of her administration for 2003 to cope with the continuing global economic slowdown.

She expressed hope that the eight-point agenda approved by her Cabinet for implementation within the next six months would generate jobs all over the country.

Mrs. Arroyo disclosed she would make a detailed announcement about this employment program in a policy speech on Dec. 30, a holiday marking the 106th death anniversary of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.

The President also said she would make a major announcement on the same day regarding Cabinet changes.

Despite the global economic downturn, Mrs. Arroyo said her administration was able to bring back one million Filipinos to the workforce from a high of four million jobless last year.

"I will be working harder next year to create more jobs and I want each of my Cabinet members to work harder to also create jobs for our people," she said. "The key word next year is jobs, jobs, jobs."

Earlier, Mrs. Arroyo announced two changes in her Cabinet setup when she unveiled the eight-point program of her administration in a policy speech last Nov. 30, a holiday marking the birth anniversary of Philippine revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio.

She took the occasion to announce her appointment of Presidential Adviser for One Million Jobs Luisito Lorenzo Jr. as the new agriculture secretary and Elisea Gozun as her new environment and natural resources secretary.

Two weeks later, she announced the appointment of Romulo Neri as the new director-general of National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) replacing Dante Canlas.

The series of abrupt changes in the Cabinet triggered coffee shop talk and text rumors of a more comprehensive revamp as Mrs. Arroyo’s popularity rating slipped further in recent surveys.

Yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo expressed her dismay over loose talks that some of her Cabinet officials which included Justice Secretary-on leave Hernando Perez, Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho and Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina were on their way out.

Even the low-profile Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, the so-called bearer of bad news in giving the pink slip to outgoing Cabinet members, was rumored to be the object of an ouster move by a "civil society" clique in the Arroyo Cabinet.

The STAR learned that Romulo was spending the Christmas holidays in the US.

Nonetheless, Mrs. Arroyo went on to celebrate Christmas by doling out cash and baskets of groceries to urban poor residents who trooped to her family’s La Vista home. — Marichu Villanueva