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The government eyes to create one million jobs in the first half of
2009 as part of its emergency measures against the global economic
crisis, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) announced
Tuesday.
In a separate statement, Press Secretary Jesus
Dureza said the economic measure, discussed during a Cabinet meeting
in Iligan City Tuesday, is part of the plan presented to the
President in December by Ralph Recto, Socioeconomic Planning
secretary and director general of the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA).
“This is the first new year’s full meeting
with the President here in Iligan City,” Dureza added. “The
first agenda of the Cabinet is the sustainability plan, the
emergency employment and livelihood programs given to Cabinet
members for monitoring.”
He said the emergency employment and livelihood
program, which is expected to generate one million jobs in the first
half of 2009, would be in addition to the existing government
programs for job generation.
The new government plan is expected to double
the one-million-jobs per year target of the administration
implemented in the previous years.
“It will generate employment for the
unemployed such as projects for production of organic fertilizer,
bantay-dagat [guarding the seas] and bantay-gubat [guarding
forests], since those will require employment of people in [the]
poor sector. This is the emergency employment project done
nationwide by members of the Cabinet,” he explained.
OFW jobs
Also on Tuesday, the Philippine News Agency,
citing information from the Manila Economic and Cultural Office
(MECO), reported that the majority of the 60,000 overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs) in Taiwan’s manufacturing industry are safe from
the global financial crisis. The office was reacting to an earlier
report from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)
that said at least 1,000 OFWs in Taiwan and other countries were
laid off because of the crisis.
The retrenched OFWs came from the textile and
electronic industries, whose exports to the US and elsewhere have
been hit by the crisis, said Antonio Basilio, Manila’s
representative in Taiwan.
Basilio said 30,000 of the 90,000 Filipinos in
Taiwan would be protected from the crisis, as their jobs are
primarily set in unaffected sectors, like construction, household
service and fishing. In fact, he added, more jobs would be available
for Filipinos once the Taiwanese government implements its
multimillion-dollar economic stimulus package next year.
A Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
official earlier reported that of the 3,321 displaced Filipino
workers as of December 23, 2008 worked for Taiwanese electronics
firms that recently declared bankruptcy.
Saudi Arabia
A popular Saudi Arabian hospital is recruiting
60,000 nurses to fill hospital positions in the kingdom, said Lito
Soriano, a senior officer at LBS E-Recruitment Solution, in a report
posted on the website of the television network ABS-CBN.
Unlike in the United States, the demand for
nurses in Saudi Arabia is immediate, Soriano added.
The King Fahd Medical Center is only one of the
many hospitals in Saudi Arabia looking for Filipino nurses, he
said, adding that its officials are now in the country to interview
prospective employees.
“Saudi Arabia is expanding its health-care
system in two or so years,” Labor Undersecretary Carmelita Pineda
told The Manila Times.
Hospitals in Saudi Arabia offer $600 to $1,000
monthly in basic salary, plus free housing, transportation and
vacation privileges.
-- Angelo S. Samonte And Bernice Camille V. Bauzon
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