Alternative jobs needed
CHANGE is not just coming; for a number of areas it is here. The landscape of the illegal drug trade industry has dramatically changed. The market has significantly shrank as buyers either voluntarily surrender or are terminated in encounters with peace officers. The users left are faced with high prices as the supply chain has been disrupted by either the capture, surrender, or elimination of drug pushers and even a few manufacturers. The protectors and their bevy of collectors are lying low as top police generals have been named and shamed by President Duterte for not exerting efforts to curb the illegal trade in their area or for accepting support from them.
What may be lost in the general hype of approval of the Duterte’s administration drive against illegal drugs and the corollary programs it has spawned is that more Filipinos are on the streets jobless — drug users who were working but are now under confinement or rehabilitation; drug pushers who used to make good margins on their sales; the drug lord and the manufacturing staff, including other support staff. Income and therefore their ability to pump funds in the local economy has diminished, as drug lords are forced to close down and their protectors are out of jobs.
It is not only in the illegal drug trade that one is witnessing this situation. Ever since President Duterte expressed concern in his first cabinet meeting on June 30 about the proliferation of online gambling around the county and directed Pagcor to revoke the licenses of the operators involved, I have been anticipating massive layoffs in the sector. The case of PhilWeb is instructive. While most are focusing on the moves against it as the personal “vendetta” of the President against businessman Roberto V. Ongpin, I would rather see it as the initial fulfillment of the President’s promise to close down a business because in the words of Pagcor Chair Andrea Domingo, “of the social ills and decay they foist on our communities as they cater to the more economically vulnerable portion of our population.” It is not only the small 131 businessmen who invested an estimated 11.8 billion in aggregate but more tragically the 6,000 employees and their families who are suffering. Once the Pagcor goes full gear and implements the President’s directive to go after other operators, how many tens of thousands will join the ranks of the unemployed.
The mining industry is in the doldrums as the crusading Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary is determined to close down all polluting and destructive mining companies which, by her definition, seem to be all the existing ones. Already suffering from the inaction of the Aquino administration on needed support for the industry, the aggressive action of the Duterte administration may deal the final death blow to an industry that not only earns substantial foreign exchange but employs thousands of workers that stimulate local economies.
Since some firms in the two legal industries are listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange, we have seen how the regulatory moves against them have not only affected the stock prices but have served as dampeners to the market. Again, jobs could be lost, earnings down, accompanied by less spending in the restaurants in the Makati and Ortigas areas as well as postponed purchases of high-end commodities. Tightening of the belt will not help achieve a Duterte administration’s wish for higher and equitable economic growth.
The urgent task is to generate alternative jobs for those laid off and losing their livelihoods. The Duterte administration can not wait for the jobs generated by new enterprises as it will take some time to get start-ups going. In the meantime, no jobs and no incomes could lead to a creeping disillusionment with the new administration.
Only government is in a position to create jobs fast. It could follow the Emergency Employment Administration model of the Diosdado Macapagal administration. It could borrow from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt program that reversed the Great Depression in the USA and even commissioned artists to perform in public places and painters to enliven public buildings. It could expand the Conditional Cash Transfer program to include drug users undergoing rehabilitation. Pending the restoration of mandatory ROTC, it could conscript able-bodied, young, and unemployed Filipinos and make them undergo military and disaster management training in the camps.
I am sure there are other ideas; what is important is — have the jobs now!