Angara wants goverment to draft economic contingency plan

Former Senate President Edgardo Angara asked yesterday the country’s economic managers to institute the needed contingency plans for the local electronics industry and some 4.5 million overseas contract workers who might be affected by a global recession.

"We may not feel the ill-effects of the recession yet, but it might hit us this month," Angara warned.

Angara, lead senatorial candidate of LDP-Puwersa ng Masa, expressed concern that the Arroyo administration has not yet come up with contingency plans even if the recession, particularly in Japan and the United States, has been ongoing for more than a month already.

"Semiconductors are our main export products, and Japan and the United States are our main market. Semiconductors will be adversely affected unless we can find alternative markets," he said.

Angara pointed out that any major cutback in the export earnings on semiconductors would worsen the balance of trade and foreign exchange earnings of the country.

He also said that the global recession would hit major employers of Filipino OCWs, forcing them to cut down their economic activities and lay off people.

He warned that the return of the OCWs could increase the unemployment rate in the country, as the pace of job creation has not matched the volume of young men and women that enter the job market every year.

Angara admitted that it is almost impossible to give returning OCWs jobs and compensation equal to what they were getting abroad. Nevertheless, he stressed that the government must prepare an assistance package for them.

He said that LDP-Puwersa ng Masa is now reviewing the country’s fiscal incentives to make them more effective in developing and encouraging labor-intensive industries. – Efren Danao