Gov’t vows jobs, education for poor

MANILA, Philippines - The government is prepared to further intervene in the lives of the poor by ensuring they have the means to pursue education and gain employment, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said yesterday.

Abad told reporters they have received proposals to extend the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to ensure that students would finish high school and acquire the skills needed to land a job.

“We’re thinking we might be wasting our initial investments if the children will just stop schooling after graduating from CCT,” he said. The CCT is given to poor families on the condition that they keep their children in school.

President Aquino has yet to approve an expanded CCT program but Abad said the administration is ready to embark on projects – together with the private sector – on developing labor-intensive activities.

“If you look at the aggregate GDP (gross domestic product) growth, the main driver is the services sector and the employment beneficiaries are the middle class, those with skills involved in business process outsourcing, real estate and government services,” Abad said.

He said developing certain industries like rubber, palm oil, coconut, coffee and seaweed in the Mindanao region should be led by the private sector, with the government lending support through infrastructure and credit provision.

“Right now, representatives of the private sector from these communities have been meeting to identify where the industry will be initiated,” Abad said.

He said they were identifying policy bottlenecks that may get in the way of the businesses.

“The bulk of the poor reside in rural areas, (this initiative will) directly impact on the lives of this sector. This strategy will result in the poorer segments of society contributing to the growth of the economy,” Abad said.

“If you do not help the private sector, they will not go into areas where the people are lacking in skills to work for them. The government has to intervene because historically and structurally, the roots of these problems are deep. They cannot be fixed overnight,” Abad said.

For agriculture, Abad said the government would boost investments in irrigation, farm-to-market roads and other areas.

“We’re making up for the long neglect of the sector. Now we have huge investment in the agriculture sector, production of rice, coconut and other areas,” he said.

He said social protection initiatives like the CCT should be implemented side by side with investments to ensure livelihood and employment for the poor.

“The extreme poor is about 10 percent of the population. They need social protection, social services. In the agriculture sector, they need micro-credit, micro-insurance, micro-guarantees with banks,” Abad said.

“We need to ensure that they do not lose everything whenever calamity strikes. You assist them with CCT and other services and at the same time help them improve their sources of livelihood,” he said.

Non-wage benefits

Meanwhile, President Aquino is set to unveil a package of non-wage benefits for workers in a dialogue with labor groups today.

“The President will meet with the members of the labor sector and he will outline what will be given,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said yesterday.

Asked to reveal the benefits or how realistic they are, Lacierda said it would be best to wait for the President’s announcement. Malacañang also made clear that it was up to Congress to deal with a proposal by Sen. Ralph Recto to exempt overtime pay and bonuses from taxes as such proposal – if carried out – would entail P60 billion in foregone revenues.

Lacierda explained that under the Tax Reform Act of 1997, all bonuses not exceeding P30,000 are already exempted from taxes.

He said Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares had informed the Palace that Recto’s proposal should pass through the legislative process.

“You have to enact the law to amend the Tax Reform Act to do that,” he said.

“Number two, based on the computations of the (Bureau of) Internal Revenue, if that is allowed, you will have a foregone revenue of P60 billion. That is quite substantial,” Lacierda said.

He said a petition to increase salaries had already been filed with the wage board and that it would be subjected to a review by May 17.

“There’s a dialogue and there’s an opportunity for the labor sector to discuss things with the President. This is not the first time it has happened,” Lacierda said.

“What we are committed to do is improving the lot of our laborers and we continue to do that. As to what the figures are, we will leave it with the Department of Labor (and Employment),” he said.

Sought for comment on possible effects of labor issues on the outcome of the elections, Lacierda said: “There are a number of issues that were already raised… Certainly, these are economic concerns of the voters. What you can see, however, are the improvements that we have done for the people.”

“We have laid out what this government has done; what this government is committed to do. And we hope that the people will see that the ‘straight path’ is reaping benefits for the Filipino people,” Lacierda said.

Aside from benefits, Lacierda assured workers that the government is doing its best to improve their condition, including those overseas.

Lacierda said Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario has been constantly reminding diplomats, especially in areas with a high number of overseas Filipino workers, “to treat them with full civility and with full respect.” 

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, for her part, said the President is likely to approve her agency’s proposal for “equalization of Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) benefits among government and private employees.”

Based on their proposal to the President, Baldoz said  public workers who suffered work-related injuries shall now get P200 daily temporary disability benefits from the previous P90.

“These additional benefits from ECC are just for contingency because nobody wants to suffer from disability or death while working,” she pointed out. – With Rainier Allan Ronda, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Non Alquitran, Mayen Jaymalin, Michael Punongbayan