Palace welcomes proposed executive-legislative job summit

Malacañang is open to holding a summit with lawmakers, Cabinet men, and business leaders to discuss ways and means to create more jobs in the face of the global economic crisis.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the Arroyo administration is thankful “that there is such a recommendation” in the Senate as this will help the government confront “the economic challenges that we face.”

“We remain hopeful of 2009 in spite of the dire predictions. We don’t know what will happen, but what is important is that we unite and help the nation together,” Dureza said.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada earlier called on Malacañang and their colleagues in Congress to hold a summit with the business sector.

Pangilinan said both the executive and legislative branches of government should work together in fast-tracking measures that would generate jobs amid massive layoffs of Filipino workers abroad.

“Instead of talking Charter change and term extensions, both Malacañang and Congress should be more preoccupied in devising means of creating job opportunities for those OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) who will lose their jobs,” Pangilinan said.

“We should hit the ground running in 2009 by putting our heads together to avert a rapid increase in our unemployment rate. I challenge the new Senate leadership to lead the call for a job creation summit that will involve Malacañang, the Senate and House of Representatives, business leaders, and civil society.”

Pangilinan said he is pushing for the promotion and increased government support for the small and medium enterprises, particularly in rural areas.

He said the government should expand credit access so that laid-off OFWs would instead engage in putting up their small businesses rather than wait for job opportunities outside the country.

Estrada, chairman of the Senate committee on labor and employment, noted the admission by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that the layoff trend was on the rise as 946 Filipino workers were reportedly retrenched from Taiwan’s manufacturing industry; 75 from Western Australia’s ship building industry; 300 from the casino-hotel of Macau, almost a hundred from the hotel industry of Italy; and 200 seamen from foreign vessels. – Paolo Romero