‘Government created only 162,000 jobs in 2 years’

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration created only 162,000 jobs in 2017 and 2018, the lowest after the Marcos era, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said yesterday.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Casilao said the annual average of 81,000 jobs is less than one percent of the one million jobs the current administration has promised to create.

Casilao said it is also the lowest yearly average after the Marcos regime.

Again citing PSA data, Casilao added the government of the late president Corazon Aquino created 810,000 jobs between 1987 and 1992 or an annual average of 135,000, while the Ramos administration generated 489,000 from 1993 to 1998, or an average of 81,500.

He pointed out that then president Joseph Estrada produced 842,000 jobs between 1999 and 2001, or an average of 280,667; his successor former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo produced 764,000 from 2002 to 2010, or 84,889 a year, and former president Benigno Aquino lll created 827,000, or 137,833 a year.

Casilao also criticized the Duterte administration for allegedly preferring Chinese workers over Filipinos.

“The Palace claim that Filipinos lack skills that is why it prefers Chinese migrant workers is highly insulting to us. Our workers have proven their excellence in working in different fields of work in so many countries abroad, be it as a construction worker, IT technician or domestic helper. Name it and there is an overseas Filipino worker who excels in it,” he said.

Casilao said the administration’s preferential treatment for Chinese workers “is part of its cozying up to Beijing.”

Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano added the Duterte government has only itself to blame for missing its growth target for 2018.

“The government cannot just shift the blame whenever something bad happens to our economy. They have to own up to their shortcomings,” he said.
Alejano said the slower growth could be attributed largely to new and higher fuel taxes imposed under the controversial Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. 

“We actually did not need the new taxes on diesel, cooking gas, kerosene and bunker fuel for producing electricity and higher levies on other oil products. The government just needs efficiency when it comes to tax collection,” he said.