Jobs only way to fight hunger, says solon

NEWS RELEASE

Rep. Elpidio F. Barzaga Jr. (Lone district of Dasmariñas City, Cavite)

Suite 402 RVMB, House of Representatives Contact: COS Aisa D. Sango @0917-4181305

President expected to deal w/ unemployment on Monday July 23, 2010

Jobs only way to fight hunger, says solon

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Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. And even more jobs. This is the only way for government to effectively fight widespread involuntary hunger, Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga said Friday.

"In fact, we are counting on President Aquino to deal with unemployment and jobs creation when he delivers his first state of the nation address on Monday," Barzaga said.

Barzaga said many Filipino families have to endure hunger because their able-bodied members do not have gainful employment. "Without jobs, they do not have any income, and they do not have assured access to food. So jobs creation is the only way to ease hunger," he said.

"If we look at the latest survey, the estimated number of households suffering from hunger correspond more or less to the number of unemployed Filipinos," Barzaga said.

He said households facing hunger either do not have at least one member who is fully employed, or has only one member working a few hours every week.

A household with at least one member fully employed would never go hungry, according to Barzaga.

"The household may have hardships, including having to live in informal shelters, or being unable to properly care for the sick, but the family with at least one member working full-time will always have some access to food," he pointed out.

About one in every five Filipino families or 4 million households experienced either "severe" or "moderate" involuntary hunger in the past three months, according to a Social Weather Stations survey.

The National Statistics Office previously reported that the total number of able-bodied Filipinos totally without work rose to 3.1 million as of April, up 300,000 from 2.8 million in January. Another 6.3 million Filipinos are underemployed or working only part-time and desperately looking for full-time jobs.

Barzaga renewed his call for the President to embark on state visits in the first 12 months of his term, and use his popularity overseas to aggressively sell the Philippines to foreign investors.

"We need additional investors to come in and establish new factories that will produce fresh jobs," he said.

Barzaga said Aquino should accept right away President Obama's invitation to visit America, Manila's single biggest source of foreign direct investments.

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns on Tuesday reiterated Obama's invitation for Aquino to visit Washington.

Burns was in Manila for a two-day visit. Obama first invited Aquino to visit the White House in a prior telephone conversation. This was shortly after Aquino was proclaimed winner of the 2010 presidential elections.

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