The Aquino government can ease unemployment, especially in the agriculture and fisheries sector, by funding labor-intensive infrastructure and agricultural projects undertaken through construction cooperatives, according to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
Cayetano proposed his 3-in-1 proposal after the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) reported that the agriculture sector posted the most significant drop in job generation and pushed the jobless rate up to 7.5 percent in April of this year.
With 31 percent of Filipinos engaged in agriculture, any decrease in jobs in the sector would translate to a number of lost employment opportunities, especially in the rural areas, he said.
“Thirty-one percent is a big number. And if you look at the poverty incidence report of the National Statistics and Coordination Board (NSCB), you would see that a big percentage of this is among the poorest in the country,” Cayetano said.
“Poverty incidence among our fishermen is 41.4 percent, while it is 36.7 percent for our farmers,” he said.
Cayetano said government could encourage the establishment of construction cooperatives in the countryside while helping finance infrastructure projects that could include irrigation systems, farm-to-market roads, and small community projects.
He proposed that government lend construction equipment and provide construction materials for the infrastructure projects while cooperatives provide labor and entrepreneurship aspect.
Profits of the cooperatives would then be distributed among members, he said.
“This solution is 3-in-1 because the agricultural sector is given a boost in helping farmers be more productive. More jobs are created in the agricultural sector,” Cayetano said.
“And the more jobs that are created because of the labor-intensive nature of agriculture and construction, the more the profits will go to farmers and construction workers and cooperative members instead of to the contractors,” he said.
In highly urbanized areas, small infrastructure projects can be assigned to such cooperatives such as the construction of basketball courts, waiting sheds, minor building repairs, pathways and the like.

Source: Manila Bulletin - June 17, 2013