MANILA – A senior aide of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo warned that up to 60,000 Filipinos, mostly working in the electronics and garment industries, could lose their jobs this year as the global financial turmoil deepens.
Secretary Marianito Roque of the Department of Labor and Employment explained that the job cuts are expected because the two industries have been suffering from plunging global demand for their products due to the crisis.
In particular, Roque said that electronics employs 480,000 people and accounts for nearly 70 percent of the country’s export.
He also pointed out that as the global economy slows down, hundreds of Filipinos are losing their jobs daily. He admitted that between December 1, 2008 and January 19 this year, some 15,600 workers were laid off.
Over the same period, 19,000 others had their shifts or working hours reduced as part of the cost-cutting measures adopted by the affected companies, Roque said.
“This is not normal,” the labor secretary told a radio interview. “This is not business as usual.”
Roque’s warning came as Intel Philippines, one of the country’s biggest electronics manufacturers, formally bade goodbye after announcing it is closing down its facility in Cavite province in Southern Luzon where it has operated for the past 35 years, due to hard times.
An Intel spokesman admitted nothing could have been down to change the company’s decision, adding officials have prepared an exit program as well as separation packages for the 1,800 employees that have to be retrenched.
The spokesman said the exit program consists of skills and training, livelihood opportunities, seminars and job fairs.
Amid this dire development, a ranking labor department official who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to media on the issue, said they are looking at the possibility of granting a monthly subsidy for the growing number of displaced workers nationwide.
The official said the department has proposed giving to the affected workers financial support similar to that being granted now to the poorest of the poor.
“We are proposing that part of the conditional cash transfer fund of the Department of Social Welfare and Development be given to the labor department so we could immediately allocate to the displaced workers,” the official revealed.
However, he pointed out that such assistance is only a stop-gap measure to help the displaced workers cope with their problem until they find a new job.
But to other experts, like Benjamin Diokno, a former labor secretary during the term of president Fidel Ramos, urged the government to do something more as he warned that the Intel closure of its plant in Cavite is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
In this light, the government should prepare for more layoffs, plant shutdowns and dire economic indicators that will continue beyond 2010, said Diokno, now a professor at the state-owned University of the Philippines school of economics.
He projected that as the global recession deepens, about 500,000 Filipinos here and abroad will lose their jobs as he explained:
“The economies of the top 10 export destinations of Philippine exports are expected to get worse in 2009 and a weak recovery is projected in 2010. Weaker economies mean lower demand for Philippine products. Weaker export demand means more layoffs.”
Diokno also doubted government assurances of creating new jobs for the displaced workers. He said the government cannot just retrain workers for new types of jobs since they tend to be more negative in their outlook.
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