Jobs summit

As per the Chinese lunar calendar, the Year of the Rat gives way today to the Year of the Ox. The year 2009 is an auspicious time for the Year of the Ox. In the financial market, the symbol of the bull, or ox, represents a market that is on the upswing.

A bullish market is a prolonged period in which investment prices rise faster than their historical average. Bull markets can happen as a result of an economic recovery, an economic boom, or investor psychology. The longest and most famous bull market is the one that began in the early 1990s in which the US equity markets grew at their fastest pace ever. Its opposite is called a bear market.

However, the year 2009 — which falls on the year of the earth ox — comes with the global financial crisis that also started in the US. It is now unleashing its impact to the economies of the rest of the world, including ours. In fact, no less than Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Marianito Roque disclosed as many as 15,600 Filipinos have lost their jobs between Dec. 1 and Jan. 19 based on the latest record.

Certainly, though, the DOLE Secretary pointed out, these figures were half of the 35,000 laid off workers in Laguna alone, that the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) earlier claimed. This does not include yet the 1,800 more who would be retrenched over a period of time this year from the closing down of the assembly test facility in Cavite of America’s Intel, the world’s biggest manufacturer of microprocessor.

But whatever estimates of job losses that the global financial crisis is now causing our country, the fact remains that one Filipino breadwinner — with a typical family size of five children — is getting unemployed everyday.

So it wouldn’t hurt President Arroyo to call upon the best of minds to convene a “jobs summit” as proposed by some opposition Senators. Early in 2008, the Chief Executive called an “energy summit” at the height of the historic rise in world crude oil prices. She subsequently called for a “food” summit in April last year following the rice shortage crisis. While those summits were no cure-all, these meetings convened by the government with concerned sectors have curbed at least the public panic. So why not a “jobs summit?”

The “jobs summit” was first proposed by Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan. Estrada, chairman of the Senate committee on labor, has a valid suggestion that is worth looking into by the Palace. There has been no definitive response yet by the Palace on the proposed holding of the “jobs” summit.

Or, if the Palace would not want the opposition to get the brownie points for it, the President may find it convenient to call a meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). Anyway, Mrs. Arroyo has not convened the LEDAC since the change of leadership in the Upper Chamber took place in November. She may use the opportunity to work out with new Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles their common legislative agenda for the remainder of the 14th Congress.

The LEDAC meeting would also be timely for the President to discuss with leaders of Congress the proposed 2009 budget which both chambers ratified last week. Given the scarce resources of the government, it would do well for both the Palace and Congress to review their common priorities in the implementation of the so-called economic stimulus package — as contained in the 2009 budget to cushion the Philippine economy from the ill-effects of the global financial meltdown. Throwing money to the problem would not solve it.

The global financial crisis which have seriously cut down the world market of many US and multinational companies, as in the case of Intel, would directly affect our own employment situation here, in particular those working in companies registered in the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. These companies are mostly located in the export processing zones, techno-parks and industrial belts in various parts of the country. Thus, for agriculture-based provinces like the Bicol region, the world financial woes is the least of worries for officials like Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, who in the past has kept a close watch over these developments in the US sub-prime markets.

An influential economic adviser of the Commander-in-Chief, Gov. Salceda fears more the rat infestation that has laid siege to their rice production. For him, this poses a direct threat to the rice self-sufficiency program not only of Albay but also the country’s food security. Reports from the provincial office counted some 1,521 farmers have been affected by the rat menace. The rats not only feed on harvested palay but also on rice seedlings that have been planted. The rats were believed to have been forced out of their breeding grounds due to the massive rains and floods that hit the province last month.

Gov. Salceda ordered to buy more rat poison (zinc phosphide) to stave off the rodents’ threat. He likewise ordered his provincial agriculturist to submit a master plan on how to deal effectively with the problem of marauding rats which have ravaged some 694.5 hectares of rice lands in the province.

Jesus Salceda, Polangui town mayor and father of the Albay governor has started giving a P1 reward to every rice farmer of Polangui for every tail of rat presented to him. Gov. Salceda raised the reward by another P1 for every rat tail a rice farmer can present. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is not only income augmentation for farmers but could very well create temporary employment for the jobless as rat hunters.

As far as Gov. Salceda is concerned, he apparently would want to see an immediate end of the Year of the Rat and get on with the Year of the Ox fast. This is not because he sees that the Year of the Ox would induce recovery in the financial markets. By the way, the Philippine carabao, related to the ox family, is the country’s symbol for agriculture productivity.

But obviously, the governor would not mind to become a rodent chaser rather than allowing his province’s ricelands to go to the rats. A rice farmer’s job is not something that a summit could create. It could, however, help protect jobs in the countryside.