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DA targets initial 131,000 jobs under PGMA emergency employment program |
| by www.Gov.com.ph - 02/25/2009 |
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| "MANILA (PNA) -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) expects to create an initial 131,000 new jobs in the agriculture and fisheries sector this year." |
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This is under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's emergency employment package that forms part of the P330-billion economic stimulus program designed to insulate Filipinos from the adverse effects of the worsening global financial meltdown.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said that the DA's commitment during the recent jobs summit in Malacañang was to generate 81,134 jobs through the repair and rehabilitation of irrigation facilities nationwide and another 10,400 under its organic fertilizer production program.
The DA also pledged to create another 36,500 jobs through the construction of farm to market roads and 3,645 employment opportunities under its goal dispersal program for a total of 131,679 new jobs, Yap said.
“The jobs to be created in the agricultural sector represents about one-sixth of the total commitment of at least 800,000 new jobs that will be generated through the various economic pump priming projects of the government aimed at helping Filipinos ride out the financial crisis that is expected to worsen this year,” Yap said.
Yap called on Congress to do its share in helping government mitigate the effects of the worldwide financial contagion on the economy by passing an economic stimulus bill that will bankroll these commitments reached during the jobs summit at Malacañang.
Besides the DA, the jobs program will also involve the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Education, State Universities and Colleges, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Labor and Employment, and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Yap, who is also the Cabinet steward in charge of livelihood and emergency employment projects in the provinces of Region II (Cagayan Valley) and Bohol, said the jobs to be generated in the agricultural sector will not only benefit rural workers in the short term, but will also benefit Philippine agriculture in the long run because they would cover the construction of facilities and other programs that will increase food production, reduce post harvest losses, and heighten the competitiveness of small farmers and fisherfolk.
He said that in an earlier Cabinet meeting, the DA projects that Malacañang decided to carry out immediately to help accomplish its target of creating close to one million jobs include the cultivation of organic fertilizer in Ilocos; construction of flatbed dryers, irrigation projects and agro-forestry projects in Cagayan Valley); production of organic fertilizers and vegetable planting programs in the Cordillera Administrative Region; livestock production and irrigation construction in Central Luzon;
Setting up of more Tindahan Natin branches in Metro Manila; irrigation projects in Bicol; swine livelihood, bantay dagat program and organization of a Balicasag marine sanctuary in Central Visayas; construction of roads and flatbed dryers and employment of Bantay Dagat in Eastern Visayas;
Livestock production, coconut-corn intercropping and agro-forestry in the Zamboanga Peninsula; irrigation repair and production of organic fertilizer in Northern Mindanao; agribusiness, irrigation projects and fisherfolk livelihood programs in the Davao region; marine management resource project in the Soccsksargen (South Cotabato-Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarrangani-General Santos) region; and fisherfolk livelihood programs for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Yap had given marching orders to DA officials to craft a comprehensive blueprint that would ensure the effective and speedy implementation of the agency’s “high-impact” projects in 2009 in line with Malacañang’s plan to pump prime the economy and preserve and create jobs in the midst of the global economic slowdown.
On Yap ’s orders, the DA also fleshed out its more stringent guidelines on the downloading of funds to its program partners like local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs) and people’s organizations (POs) to ensure the judicious disbursement of such outlays in 2009 for the implementation of its projects in the countryside. (PNA)
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