Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas 2011 in its Third Quarter Report: Employment in Agriculture Down, Foreign Direct Investments Low (1)Submitted by Gil Alfredo B. ... on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 15:16 

Bacolod City Business and Economy Gil Alfredo B. Severino

The only alternative left for Filipinos is “self-coping mechanism” as the 2011Third Quarter Report of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) presented the grim reality of an unproductive Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry (AFF) in terms of employment and a portfolio and direct foreign investment scenario that cannot salvage the situation.Employment in the agricul-ture, fishery and forestry (AFF) sector registered a 1.2 percent decline, a reversal of the 3.2 percent growth in the third quarter same time last year 2011, according to the July 2011 Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the National Statistics Office (NSO) and finally incorporated by BSP in its report.Here in Negros, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) were the subject of three major studies conducted in the past, one of them was conducted by the Provincial Government under the late Governor Joseph Marañon; all studies showed counter-productivity of said legislative measure to land, employment and production of sugar but it was a dismay that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo extended it to another five years.Bacolod City which is 65 percent agricultural-based has no AFF policy or direction at all, but which could solve poverty to a greater extent if seriously considered and properly implemented.Overall national figure shows the rise of unemployment rate at 7.1 percent in the third quarter of 2011 from 6.9 percent registered a year ago in 2010 as population of labor force outpaced growth in employment, the BSP-NSO report read.In actual terms, of the 37.1 million total employed persons in the third quarter of 2011, more than half (52.2 percent) were employed by the services sector, the AFF employs 32.6 percent while the industry - manufacturing sectors accounted for only 15.2 percent of total employment, respectively.Employment problem will continue to hound the Philippine economy as direct investments registered net outflows of US$94 million in Q3 2011, a reversal of the US$281 million net inflows recorded in the same quarter last 2010, the BSP report added.The third quarter 2011 BSP report also read, foreign direct investments registered net outflows of US$63 million due to negative balances posted in the equity and other capital accounts. The above are investments which generate employment but lamentably did not augur well for the country during the reported period.The spillover effects of the intensified financial turbulence in the Euro area and the weak recovery in the U.S. were manifested in the slowdown in net inflows of portfolio investments and the reversal to net outflows of direct investments.*