Press Release
December 18, 2008

MACTAN LAY-OFFS SIGNAL START OF CRISIS - ROXAS
GOV'T UNPREPARED AS GMA PARTIES AND DOES THE CHA-CHA

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said lay-offs in a Mactan-based company supplying car parts to American automakers are a clear sign that the global financial crisis is starting to have its effect on Filipino families and warned that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government is unprepared to deal with its onslaught.

Roxas said Mrs. Arroyo bears full responsibility for these lay-offs and the sudden decline in the employment rate as her administration focused instead on a controversial Charter Change campaign instead of mobilizing Congress and the business sector to cushion the financial crisis' impact on Filipinos.

"Imbes na atupagin ang bagyong parating ay nag-party at nag-Cha-Cha si GMA at ang kanyang administrasyon. Nakakalungkot na ang kapalit nito'y kawalan ng hanapbuhay para sa libu-libong Pilipino (Instead of focusing on the coming storm, GMA and her administration partied and did the Cha-cha. I'm saddened that the result of this is loss of livelihood for thousands of Filipinos)," the Ilonggo senator said.

The Mactan-based company had reportedly laid off 80 employees and is reportedly planning to lay off 200 more with demand for car parts from American companies Chrysler and Ford Motor suddenly plunging.

The Ilonggo senator said more layoffs can be expected among industries exporting to the US and European markets in the coming months as the effects of the global financial crisis become more pronounced.

"Kung sa Amerika nga ay halos dalawang milyon na ang nawalan ng trabaho, dito pa kaya sa atin? Imbes na Cha-Cha ang atupagin ni GMA at ng mga kaalyado niya sa Kongreso ay dapat unahin ang isalba ang trabaho ng mga Pilipino (If in America the jobs losses have reached almost two million, what more here in our country? Instead of focusing on their Cha-Cha, GMA and her allies in Congress should focus on saving the jobs of Filipinos)," he said.

Roxas said a clear warning sign is the recent National Statistics Office report showing that unemployment reached 6.8% in October, from 6.3% in the same period last year, meaning that there were now 2.5 million jobless Filipinos.

"Hindi na pwede mambola ang Pangulong Arroyo na ginagawa nila ang lahat para labanan itong krisis pang-ekonomiya (President Arroyo can no longer deceive us that the Palace is doing its best to fight this crisis)," he added.

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