MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 25, 2012) – A Filipino migrants’ rights Migrante Middle East urged President Benigno Aquino to slow down politicking and instead work hard to in running the economy.
“We find it necessary to convey our New Year’s wish to President Aquino – Slow down politicking, but rather focus on running the economy,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said in a statement to the Mindanao Examiner.
Monterona, also the Vice-Chairperson of MIGRANTE Sectoral Party of OFWs and families, said Aquino and members of his Cabinet should not be too preoccupied themselves by campaigning for the administrations candidates for the mid-term polls next year.
Aquino has vowed to campaign hard for the administration’s senatorial candidates under the Liberal Party.
“Too much politicking at the expense of getting real on running the economy is not a good trade-off,” Monterona said, adding Aquino’s administration has not performed well in local jobs generation.
Citing the recent data released by the National Statistics Office, the country’s unemployment rate stood at 6.8% or about 2.8 million are still unemployed compared to 6.4% in October last year.
“The NSO data is a conservative estimate; the number of unemployed and underemployed is higher than that,” Monterona said, basing his report on the IBON, a research think-tank, whose data pegged the unemployed at 10 million.
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