Filipinos fleeing the country to work abroad contradicts the statement of President Benigno S. Aquino III that local jobs are available but there is a shortage of job applicants, a migrant workers’ welfare group said on Thursday.
Citing the data of the think-tank Ibon Foundation, Migrante Party-list chairperson Connie Bragas Regalado claimed that the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continues to rise under the Aquino administration.
“If decent-paying domestic jobs were really available, OFWs wouldn’t be scurrying to go out of the country,” she said in a statement belying claims of the President of rising employment as a result of a rising economy.
“By October, 2011, an additional 1.35 million Filipinos have been forced to go abroad by sheer lack of opportunities, decent jobs and wages, livelihood and social services in the country,” she said.
The number of Filipinos overseas and those leaving everyday even went up since Aquino took office, the group said.
“According to Ibon Foundation, the number of jobless Filipinos has risen to unprecedented heights since 2010 and continues to reach record-high levels under Aquino,” said Bragas Regalado.
Some 4,500 Filipinos leave the country daily, and this does not include those who depart through irregular means, she said.
“At least one-fourth of the country’s labor force has gone abroad to find work. So we ask the President now, where are the domestic jobs that he claims to have created?” she said.
The group accused the Aquino administration downplaying “the worsening jobs crisis” by claiming a higher job generation rate.

Source: Manila Bulletin- February 8, 2013