I thought I and my friends are the only ones who have not been showered with the financial blessings the government is boasting of.
Then even as international financial firms continue to hail the Philippines as “s the strongest performing economy in Asia today, “reports came out of a Triple whammy: Exports and Foreign Direct Investments down and unemployment up.
ABS-CBN’s Coco Alcuaz reported that “Unemployment rose to a 3-year high as the total number of employed persons dropped, contrary to a government claim that employment is rising just not as fast as the workforce. The jobless rate rose to 7.5% in April, the highest since April 2010.”
“At the same time, exports fell again in April, as declines in sales of chemicals and some manufactured products…. offset a steadying in electronics. The National Statistics Office reports exports dropped almost 13% to $4 billion.
“Also, foreign direct investment was negative in March, meaning foreigners pulled out more than they put in. In March, they put in $56 million and withdrew $73 million, a net withdrawal of $17 million.”
This triple whammy I can very well understand. My pocket understands it very well.
Results of the latest labor force survey by the government’s NSO showed that unemployment rate as of April 2013 was 7.5 percent , up from 6.9 April last year.
How many Filipinos are jobless at 7.5 percent unemployment rate? NSO put the population of 15 years old and over at 64,028,000. Seven point five percent equals 4,802,100 jobless Filipinos.
NSO said the increase in the number of unemployed were significant among two groups: “ These were the farmers, forestry workers and fishermen whose number decreased to approximately 4.960 million in April 2013 from 5.398 million in April 2012, or a decrease of about 438 thousand workers; and the laborers and unskilled workers whose number dropped by approximately 384 thousand. “
These are numbers that represent Filipinos who have to eat three times a day, with children who have to go to school. God forbid if they get sick.
What happened then to the upbeat credit ratings?
University of the Philippines Former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the Aquino government is so “obsessed with achieving credit ratings upgrade at the expense of real, jobs-generating growth.”
International credit companies give the country good credit ratings because it has reduced its borrowings and expenditures. No spending on infrastructure like roads, airports which should have helped perk up the economy.
The lack of infrastructure resulted in decrease in foreign investments (why would foreigners invest in a country where airports, roads, transport are bad and inefficient?). Lack of foreign investment equals fewer jobs. Less jobs means more poor Filipinos.
But we have good credit ratings, the government boasted. Makakain ba yan?
Penoy Administration is the worst the Philippines ever had. Worse than Gloria. This is an administration of manipulators. They manipulate the surveys to make it appear that it has a high trust rating, manipulating the minds of the people that the Philippines has the strongest economy in Asia, manipulating the minds of the people that it is fighting against corruption but in reality a lot of people appointed by Penoy have pending corruption cases in court. A shining example on this is Grace Padaca whose bail was paid for by Penoy himself and was appointed COMELEC Commissioner despite the pending corruption case. And worse, the Filipinos themselves who allow Penoy to manipulate them and still profess canine loyalty to this Penoy. I know a lot of people will growl at me for this comment because of their blind and canine loyalty to Penoy, especially those who are wearing yellow ribbon just like their master.
shocking truth is the student learned much from his teacher. not only in school but also in both their careers. hindi naman shiguro lasheng. hik!
here’re few lines from Butch del Castillo’s column at Manila Bulletin’s Business Mirror corner dated Friday-Saturday, June 14-15, 2013
“………….the main reason is simply that most Filipinos feel deep in their hearts that they are still a long way off from attaining independence, in the truest sense of the word.
To the approximately 29 million Filipinos officially classified as living below the poverty line, what indeed is there to be jubilant about? As far as they know, they are only getting poorer by the day, while the few fat cats of society are becoming more and
more obscenely prosperous……..”
oped@businessmirror.com.ph
nakakainis na nagdudumilat na katotohanan, di ba?
next time, let’s all be cautious in choosing our would-be leader/s.
ang direksiyon ‘ata ng tinatahak ng mga nasa gobyerno ngayon ay ang fantasyland.
hindi nga kaya?
mali ‘yung link ko. email address pala ‘yun.
ay em shori.
tinatawagan ng pansin ang DepEd, ang Civil Service Commission. ang DILG. at lalao’t higit – ang opisina ng ating kagalanggalang na pangulo ng bansa, HIS EXCELLENCY President Simeon Benigno Cojuanco Aquino III.
ano ang masasabi ninyo sa kasong ito?
public school teacher, HINDI PINAPASUWELDO? sa loob ng singkad ANIM NA BUWAN? ano ipapakain sa pamilya? buhangin at ipapaulam ay bato?
6-BUWAN DI PINASWELDO, TEACHER NAGPAKAMATAY
http://www.abante-tonite.com/issue/june1513/crime_story01.htm
Nagnakaw sa gutom
http://www.abante-tonite.com/issue/june1513/crime_story04.htm
Star1542, I know you are a persistent Aquino basher but saying repeatedly that he’s worse than Gloria is quite a stretch. Or you’re just a die-hard worshiper of Gloria.
I’m not a fan of Noynoy either and I criticize him too for many of his appointees and policies, but you can’t say the economic figures coming from most major global financial institutions, banks, foreign gov’ts, and local analysts/economists are manipulated and that makes your arguments weak and insignificant.
Of course you have all the right to praise your Gloria in exorcist deo to the highest heavens (or darkest pits of hell) especially if you get monetary considerations, just as I have the right to criticize your comment. Fair game.
Let us not all be carried away by a surge of growth that is remain to be seen if can be sustained in the long term..also it must be remembered that a good percentage of not soo good number is still not soo good. Per Capita share in the GDP is the equivalent of $4000 and what is the rate of population Making 10, 20 or even 30 or 40 folds of this share? And their is no Equalization Program to which the Government can utilize to somehow ameliorate the UNBALANCE sharing of the wealth and of the growth…there is no guaranteed minimum Income (above the poverty Line) no government funded health care not due to being poor but because the tendency of the INCOME earner to pay their rightful share of taxes…(the Greece and other European Countries phenomenon) and it is also affected by still unchecked endemic and systemic corruption in government and private segments. Other poorer countries are more equal than the Philippines.
Thank you, TonGuE-tWisTeD, but I was never ever a fan of Gloria. What I mean for Penoy as worse than Gloria because of his hypocrisy of trumpeting his daang matuwid and against corruption but appointing people with pending corruption cases in various government positions. FYI, during the height of Gloria’s abuses and corruption, a lot of her lapdogs were trying to get my true identity, may be to silence me against my vocal and bold criticism against her. But it never stopped me….Also, you must be very lucky because maybe you are among the few beneficiaries of Penoy’s very credible economic growth which doesn’t transcend to millions of Filipinos who are way below the poverty level and barely eat two times a day. Stock Markets are used as indicators of economic growth by analysts. But get real, how many millions of Filipinos have shares of stocks., especially those in the poverty or below the poverty level, where most if not all have not seen a bank passbook or a stock certificate in their whole life…… “6-Buwan na Di Pinasweldo, Teacher Nagpakamatay” under Penoy watch. Di it happen during Marcos time? Don’t say that I am a Marcos loyalist this time, It’s only a comparison…
Hindi naman magka-contra yan. It is in fact the explanation. If the GDP is growing by say 2.4%, but your population is growing by 2%, then yearly, more people will be added to the ranks of the hungry. If your job creation is say 400,000 a year, but the people joining the workforce is 500,000 a year (more college or high school graduates), then yearly, you are adding to the unemployed.
Life in modern times is like running on a treadmill. You have to run twice as fast just to stay in place. That is true for the GDP, skills in a profession, or the development of antibiotics – microbes are getting to be more resistant.
Sinong kumag ang nagpaliwanag niyan? He/she is in fact admitting that the government has failed.
Penoy gising ka na kaya. Ang tatanga ng mga tagapagsalita mo. I nominate Kris and Boy Abunda. At least people will be entertained.
We have no disagreement on that point. What I’ve been saying all along is for government to create an environment that is investor friendly, with stable rules, and clamped down corruption. Sure Noynoy has projected an anti-corruption image here and abroad.
What that means, at least to many corporate think tanks, is that the gov’t income is NOT drained by overpriced projects, under the table deals, captive regulators and massive payoffs unlike in the time of Gloria. It is generally assumed that the money saved will benefit the whole population in the long haul, but I’m not jumping for joy because his term is ending in 3 years and it appears a new breed of corrupt leaders are eager to replace him.
The main protagonists in 2016 include Binay and Bongbong, both perceived corrupt and in which level I don’t know. The 3 years left in Noynoy’s reign cannot accomplish much but if tight contracts are awarded now the koraps’ itchy fingers are kept out of the cookie jar. His team is unbelievably slow. For example, the Old MIA repairs should have been finished by this time after it was named the worst airport in the world last year but what do you know, they are looking to actually start this project – meaning begin the awarding of contracts – next month!
The refurbishing of EDSA was shelved indefinitely because of the traffic it will create. There’s the CAAP navigation system which never saw the upgrade work before it was deemed obsolete. The dam which the water companies promised and funded out of approved price increases has been shelved. Damn the dam!
There is less corruption just because the gov’t is not spending anything so nothing is moving, nothing is improving.