[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’‘Cutting ties with US puts PH jobs at risk’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY and TIFFANY ANNE TAN
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
BACOLOD City – Two senators believe the Philippine labor sector will suffer most if President Rodrigo Duterte makes good on his declaration that he will sever economic ties with the United States.
While Paolo Benigno Aquino IV was concerned about overseas Filipino workers in the US, Juan Miguel Zubiri feared the Philippines may lose around $25 billion in yearly income if American business process outsourcing (BPO) clients pull out.
The two lawmakers graced MassKara Festival events here. The celebration’s highlights are happening this weekend.
“Almost 1.1 million jobs in the [Philippines] will be affected kon ma-pull out overnight ang mga Amerikano sa BPO sector naton di, together with $25 billion in income every year,” Zubiri told reporters yesterday.
Zubiri attended the Electric MassKara Performing Floats Competition at the Tourism Strip (Lacson Street) last night.
“Imagine our 1.1 million (BPO) workers,” he said. “At least they are earning a minimum of P20,000 to P25,000 a month. Kaluluoy man ang mga pamilya sinâ nila. Diin na sila ibutang?”
He claimed the US was the Philippine BPO sector’s No. 1 market and American corporations highly value Filipino workers for their English proficiency.
“I’m afraid they (American BPO clients) will pull out and move to a friendlier country,” said the senator, whose father was a native of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Negros Occidental and this capital city were trying to poise as information and communications technology-BPO hubs in the Philippines.
In a state visit in China, Duterte claimed he was forging a new commercial alliance as relations with long-time ally Washington deteriorate.
“With that, in this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,” he told Chinese and Philippine businesspeople at a forum in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. “Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also.”
His remarks in China were preceded by a tirade against the US, which had been critical of his war on drugs.
Aquino, on the other hand, said the President cannot cut economic ties with the US just like that because of the “simple fact na maraming Pilipino ang nakatira at nagtatrabaho po doon (sa Amerika).”
The cousin of former president Benigno Aquino III — Duterte’s predecessor — was at the opening of Electric MassKara on Thursday.
Both Aquino and Zubiri agreed with former president Fidel Ramos, who said the Philippines can have an independent foreign policy without making enemies.
“I don’t think that an independent foreign policy means na may kailangan tayong awayin na ibang bansa,” said Aquino.
But it might be too late now, Zubiri said. “So, what we have to do is try to lessen the impact [on] the economy.”
Department of Trade and Industry secretary Ramon Lopez yesterday clarified Duterte’s statement.
“The President did not talk about separation,” Lopez told CNN Philippines in Beijing.
“In terms of economic (ties), we are not stopping trade, investment with America. The President specifically mentioned his desire to strengthen further the ties with China and the Asean region, which we have been trading with for centuries.”
He said the Philippines was “breaking being too much dependent on one side.”
“But we definitely won’t stop the trade and investment activities with the West, specifically the US,” said Lopez.
Former Negros Occidental governor Rafael Coscolluela told Panay News he would rather wait how the words of Duterte translate into official policy, given the latter’s “propensity for off-the-cuff remarks.”
“Breaking ties with any ally is senseless unless that ally declares war against you, steals you blind or invades your territory,” said the capitol consultant on trade and investments. (With Reuters/PN)
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
