STATEMENT OF TUCP ON THE 5th SONA OF PRES. Rodrigo R. DUTERTE

On the President’s 5th SONA: 

TUCP For Massive Jobs Generation To Ease Unemployment Due To Covid-19

TUCP Party-List Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza. (Photo by: VG)

@Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) urges for massive job gene-

ration to be included in the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on

Monday, July 27, 2020,  to ease the COVID-19 triggered unemployment and

poverty citing the President’s legacy projects, particularly in the P35.91 billion

102-km Mindanao Railway Project (MRP), Tagum-Davao-Digos segment as having

great potential for employment and development.

“The Mindanao Railway Project of the President, although a single-track diesel-run

railway, has great potential to generate the much-needed jobs.  It will benefit not

just the workers in Tagum-Davao-Digos areas but from as far as BARMM,

Regions X, XII and CARAGA if agri-industrial hubs will be developed and connected

to the planned eight (8) stations which are in Tagum; Carmen; Panabo; Mundiang;

Davao Terminal; Toril; Sta Cruz; and Digos,” TUCP Partylist and TUCP President

Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza pointed out.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) had earlier reported that the MRP’s

Tagum-Davao-Digos segment’s design and construction will start in third quarter

of this year and are expected to be completed by end of 2021,

“We do not need to reinvent the wheel or embark on new grand plans to create

jobs, we just have to ensure that the ‘Build, Build, Build’ and the legacy projects

of the President would be for the development and industrialization in the

countryside to spur employment, and not just mere rail tracks, widened and

asphalted roads,” Mendoza explained.  “The President’s SONA should direct

the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and

Technology (DOST), DOLE, DOTr and Department of Public Works and

Highways (DPWH) to ensure job creation,” he suggested.

The TUCP earlier projected 5 million to 10 million unemployed workers due

to the pandemic, and 3 to 4 million in floating status under a “no work, no pay”

arrangement, while the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a

17.7 percent unemployment rate which accounts for 7.3 million unemployed

in the workforce in the second quarter of 2020, nearly a four-time increase

from the 5.1 percent unemployment rate in the same quarter of 2019.  

The PSA also reported double-digit unemployment rates in all regions, the

highest was in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

(BARMM) at 29.8 percent. The rest of the regions in Mindanao island:

Region IX registered an unemployment rate of 23.9 percent, Region X

at 11.1 percent, Region XI at 17.9 percent, Region XII at 21.2 percent and

CARAGA at 12.3 percent.

The SWS survey conducted in May 2020 noted that eighty-three percent

of Filipinos believe that their quality of life has worsened in the last 12 months. 

The survey has 294 respondents from Metro Manila, 1,645 from Balance

Luzon, 792 from Visayas, and 1,279 from Mindanao.  While a separate SWS

survey in the same period showed that 16.7 percent or an estimated 4.2 million

Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger at least once for the past

three months.

  

"We reiterate our call to the Government on the urgency to respond to the

magnitude of the displacement of workers.  Indeed, some companies are

operating but it will get worse before it will get better.  Companies are

operating in half capacities to finish the pre-pandemic job orders and there

are no new orders coming in as the economies of our markets abroad are in

recession.  Closures will come in the fourth quarter of the year with no

assurance of rebound in 2021.   There is no assurance of foreign remittance

as our OFWs are coming home and those who stayed overseas have no jobs

while our seafarers have become quarantine costly and unable to board the

ships on time due to bottlenecks in the green lanes.  It should not be

‘business-as-usual’ mode, we need to have a massive job creation program

or a Philippine Agri-Industrial Development Program to stimulate the

economy, and not rely on labor export or foreign investments,” TUCP

Vice-President Luis Corral said. 

He also pointed out that this is President Duterte’s golden opportunity to

“BUILD BACK BETTER” using the country’s “AAA-minus credit rating” to fund

a multi-trillion-peso economic stimulus package so that the credit rating is

felt by the Filipino people. (VerGarciaBlogs)