How not to generate jobs

It is both the mandate and duty of the government to manage the economy well, and thus provide jobs and livelihood for its constituents, who in turn are expected to dutifully pay their taxes, cooperate in nation-building, and even willfully surrender part of their privacy and rights for the sake of national security.

Under this framework, we would like to believe that the Marcos administration, or at least its agencies directly involved in job creation and economic growth, is genuine doing what needs to be done to generate jobs.  These agencies are the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Migrant Workers, the Department of Agriculture, Department of Finance, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Department of Tourism, and the economic planning department.

The activity called job creation has gained top priority these days particularly because of the oil shock and the economic squeeze which are partly attributable to the ongoing war in West Asia.  It is so important that it requires a whole-of-government approach, which both the national and local governments coordinating efforts to achieve the goal of full employment for Filipinos.

Against this diorama of economic struggles, however, there is one government official who has made it his personal quest to undo the gains notched by other officials in the area of job creation.  He is Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who is rich enough to allegedly buy a second citizenship in Malta.

First, Gibo Teodoro led several  agencies to harass, arrest and detain some 100 Chinese workers along with a few Filipinos who were employed in the Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp.,

a 22.7-hectare steel manufacturing facility inside the PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.  

Teodoro alleged that the P800-million plant was involved in hazardous industrial operations, the production of substandard steel products, and possible links to illegal POGOs.  These charges were not yet proven in court, and the workers were found to be legally employed, with the proper permits and papers, and were later released.

On the strength of these allegations, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, the NBI and the AFP, raided the factory, closed it down, and arrested the workers.  Gibo even boasted at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore about this incident.  He was later banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau, along with his wife and child.

The same raid was repeated, this time on July 18, against Chuangxing Steel Inc. in Magalang, Pampanga.  The NBI seized over P3 billion in “radioactive materials“ and substandard steel, arrested 3 Chinese and one Filipino officers, and uncovered severa labor and safety violations—all according to the authorities.  If these were radioactive materials, why were the raiders unprotected?

Another such raid was done by the PACC at Davao Mighty Steel Corp in Davao, with the government again fishing for “radioactive isotopes“ in reinforcing steel bars.

All these raids, which victimized mostly Chinese steel workers and technicians and a few Filipinos, were denounced by the Chinese embassy in Manila as plain harassment.

Gibo Teodoro had been sanctioned by China, banning him from entering Hong Kong, Macau and China.  But with his stellar record of vaporizing hundreds of existing jobs of Filipinos through these military and police raids of steel plants with Chinese investments, Teodoro should resign or be fired by President BBM, if the Chief Executive is serious in job generation and maintenance.