Displaced Filipino workers brace for harder times ahead
Displaced Filipino workers brace for harder times ahead
By Girlie Linao
MANILA (DPA): Nilo Baluyot used to consider himself an optimist, but now the former assistant manager of a finance company admits it has been difficult to keep the faith lately.
Like thousands of other Filipinos, the 29-year-old is on a desperate job hunt at a time when production is slowing down, companies are seeking debt moratoriums and the economy is reeling from financial turmoil.
Baluyot has applied for at least nine jobs in recent months while using his diminishing savings to support his elderly parents. "Almost all companies have stopped hiring," he said.
If Baluyot is still unemployed in two months he will consider searching for work overseas, like millions of other Filipinos have done before him.
But as the currency turmoil rages through Southeast Asia, labor markets in the entire region are shrinking precariously.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Leonardo Quisumbing said at least 30,000 overseas Filipino workers were expected to return home as businesses around Asia collapse and nations repatriate foreign workers.
"It is expected that some 2,000 workers in construction and 3,000 in the hotel and tourism industry in Malaysia and 25,000 workers in South Korea will be displaced due to economic difficulties in these countries," he said. Thailand, Indonesia and Japan were also expected to retrench foreign workers.
More than 6.5 million Filipinos are working abroad -- either as professionals or as construction workers, domestic aides or entertainers, mostly in the U.S., the Middle East and Asia. In the first nine months of last year, they remitted more than US$4 billion.
Back in the Philippines, unemployment is expected to rise to nine percent in 1998, said Philip Basilan, a senior researcher at the University of Asia and the Pacific's School of Economics.
The National Statistics Office said 2.4 million people were unemployed in the Philippines in October last year, up 8.3 percent from the same period in 1996.
"The situation is very bad, and things are going to get worse," said Wilson Fortaleza, spokesman for the labor group Bukluran ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP).
The uncertainty was aggravated by the absence of a reliable social security system in the Philippines and by the government's insistence on pursuing economic liberalization reforms, Fortaleza said.
He acknowledged that many companies now have no choice but to cut back on staff, but asked: "Who is going to protect the laborers?"
Philippine employers, for their part, complain that high interest rates, demand for wage rises and tougher competition due to the currency contagion are forcing them to adjust their production to slackened demand.
"Flat development means less jobs," said Raul Concepcion, chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries. "For the next three months, we will definitely have lay-offs. The first to go would be the casuals."
Citing financial difficulties, at least 15 major companies have already filed retrenchment or shutdown notices with DOLE, including NEC Philippines Inc., Portland Philippines Inc. and Lapanday Farms Produce Corp.
Others -- such as vehicle maker Pilipinas Hino Inc. and ceramics and tile producer Mariwasa Manufacturing Inc. -- have started to encourage employees to retire or resign voluntarily in exchange for separation or early retirement packages.
President Fidel Ramos, who is optimistic the Philippines will be the first Asian country to recover from the malaise, has scheduled a high-level meeting in February to draw up a comprehensive employment plan for displaced workers.
In the meantime, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has eased bureaucratic requirements for foreign employers and for Filipinos applying for jobs abroad.
"The fast-tracking of processing for overseas employment would help alleviate the expected unemployment and balance of payments problem that face the country if the economic crisis worsens," said POEA Administrator Felicisimo Joson.
But Baluyot cannot find consolation in advertisements from overseas placement agencies, proclaiming the Middle East and other parts of the world as lands of opportunity for unemployed Filipinos.
"Working overseas should be a last option," he said. "But right now, the situation is so grave, I really don't know how long my savings will last."