MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced she ordered an increase in the government’s economic stimulus package to cushion the impact of the global financial crunch, which will be highlighted by the plan to generate employment opportunities from one million to three million by the end of 2009.
The President revealed that with the increase, the package now reaches the equivalent of $600 million which will be spent mainly for infrastructure projects like school buildings, irrigation systems, roads and bridges.
According to President Arroyo, the stimulus package, known officially as the “economic resiliency plan,” aims to upgrade infrastructure, expand social protection and ensure sustainable growth amid the global economic crisis.
“As an economist, I also know that things can turn, and quickly,” she emphasized. “That is why we are planning for better days – even as we are developing contingency plans if things get worse.”
The President also said that sound economic management and similar measures would enable the country to overcome the global crisis.
Such optimism, President Arroyo said, is shared by nine out of 10 Filipinos as well as the international community.
For instance, she cited the report of Standard’s and Poor which compared the Philippines to an “island of relative calm amid the stormy seas of global economic uncertainty.”
The President also said that the Bank of New York Mellon declared that the Philippines is inherently strong, a potential beneficiary of these financial woes.
For his part, Secretary Domingo Panganiban, the head of the National Anti-Poverty Commission who was assigned to implement the program, said the original plan was to generate one million jobs by July 2009.
But the increase in the fund allocation will enable the government to aim for a total of three million jobs by the end of 2009, Panganiban said.
He expressed optimism they could achieved the employment target as more infrastructure projects are implemented.
But Panganiban said this is not limited to just infrastructure because the funds could also be used for livelihood programs to enable the poor Filipinos, in particular, to put up their own small or medium enterprises.
This developed as former Senate president Manuel Villar warned the government against using the economic stimulus package as a “come-on” for congressmen to pursue the controversial issue of Charter change (Cha-cha).
Villar, who was ousted as Senate president in a “coup” allegedly hatched by pro-administration lawmakers, pointed out Malacanang could award Cha-cha proponents with infrastructure projects or through the “pork barrel” allocations.
He explained beneficiaries of the stimulus package can identify projects for funding under the congressional pork barrel.
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[...] in the approved version was the allocation of about $1 billion for the “economic stimulus package” sought by Malacanang, which aims to cushion the adverse impact of the global financial and [...]