Legarda laments "uneven" economic growth

The reported faster-than-expected expansion of the economy in the second quarter "is hardly being felt by ordinary Filipinos because growth has been unstable and uneven," Sen. Loren Legarda said. Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs, attributed the recent bursts of growth to increased government and consumer spending, with a large part of the latter be driven in turn by money sent home by overseas Filipino workers.

The senator said increased consumption by the affluent, partly due to the buoyant stock market, may have also contributed to the reported 7.5 percent Gross Domestic Product growth that some bank economists described as "overstated."

"This is not durable and sustainable economic growth. We need increased productive investments -- more factories providing stable and good-paying jobs," Legarda said.

"If a family does not have a gainfully employed member, it must have at least one. If a household has only one fully employed member, it must have two, and so on," she said.

The senator also cited the need for increased self-employment opportunities in the countryside, where she said three out of four Filipinos live, and where almost 40 percent of households continue to subsist below the poverty threshold.

"This is the only way more Filipino households can emerge from poverty. This is the only way economic growth will become truly meaningful to ordinary Filipinos," she said. Legarda said growth has been "unbalanced" because only labor force participants with higher skills are getting new employment opportunities.

She also cited the latest National Labor Force Survey results, which showed only five regions -- Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula and Metro Manila -- are actually producing new jobs.

Growing forward, Legarda cited the need for "highly responsive labor skills retooling programs" that would allow more high school graduates, college undergraduates as well as unemployed professionals to qualify for good-paying jobs, for instance, in the booming information technology enabled services sector.

She also urged the government to push "the purposeful and productive economic use of large tracts of idle public lands, such as for labor-intensive reforestation projects." More importantly, depressed agrarian reform communities (ARCs) nationwide desperately need increased government support, Legarda said.

"We have to enable small and independent farmers in our ARCs to quickly create surplus production that will not only translate into higher incomes for rural households, but also ensure affordable food on the table of every family," she added.