A few days ago, it was reported that Lakas-Kampi-CMD frontrunner Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr, planned a mutual assail on unemployment by granting emergency jobs and provisional money transfers to unemployed Filipinos and farmers stumbling from calamities along with the most recent El Niño attack and driving good control policies to attract more investors to inspire the economy and in that way generate a large number of job opportunities.

Gibo said in a local television show that there are two ways to deal with the issue of inadequate jobs in an economic depression brought about by global and natural emergencies.

“In the short term, we can provide emergency employment and conditional cash transfers, especially during this season of El Niño, not only for the jobless, but for farmers who have been hard hit by floods during Ondoy last year, and now by drought,” he said.

“Kalangang patawirin ng gobyerno ang ating mga mamamayan…walang choice, kung hindi maraming magugutom. Ang ating food security, in the long run, ang magkakaroon ng problema (Our government has to reach out and help our countrymen...We have no choice, or else many will go hungry. Our food security situation will be affected in the long run),” he said when ask what jobless Filipinos can look forward to from a Teodoro government.

Gibo replied with optimism that the only solution to a rigid job market is to build up confidence in the government in the long term.

”This is  what it’s really all about,” he said. “Ika nga, kailanganng magkaroon ng tiwala ang mga mamumuhunan sa bansa para sa ganun, magkaroon ng mga trabaho, dahil kapital ang pinagsisumulan ng trabaho (Investors need  to have confidence in the country, so that jobs will be created…because jobs only come about when capital comes in),”

The former defense secretary also said that first-rate governance is the answer to stimulating assurance in investors about the Philippines.

”Pag tama ang mga polisya tungko sa edukasyon para sa human capital natin, para sa maayos na peace and order at iba pa, syempre, engganyo mag-invest ang mga mangangalakal (When we have the right policies in place, on education to provide human capital, on  peace and order, businessmen will be encouraged to invest here),” he said.

Gibo noted that labour market competence is “a difficult topic.”

“We’re all for quality jobs,” he said. ”To address underemployment and not merely unemployment, that is  a function of good governance by government, and confidence that an investor can lay his money here safely for a long, long time.”