Wages and competition

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bienvenido “Benny” Laguesma would rather see the wood for the trees and look at a half-full, not half-empty glass in interpreting the latest official statistics on joblessness in the Philippines. As far as Laguesma sees the country’s employment situation, it has been improving. As monitored by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the jobless rate slightly rose to 3.9 percent as of March, from 3.5 percent in February this year.

This is why DOLE has cautioned legislators anew on the possible adverse impact of granting an across-the-board legislated wage increase that might add to possible displacement of more workers and fuel inflation while the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed down to 5.7 percent for the first quarter this year.

On Labor Day, Laguesma quoted the marching orders of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) to all regional wage boards to act within the mandatory period of resolution of wage hike, with or without any petition.

Laguesma, a member of the Cabinet socio-economic cluster, remains confident though that more job opportunities will be created out of business agreements and investments “pledges” forged during the state and official visits abroad of PBBM. The DOLE Secretary credited the continuing efforts to the much-improved governance in the Philippines as having renewed business and investments interests about our country in the past 22 months of the Marcos administration.

Laguesma argued there was an increase in unemployment mainly due to the high number of new entrants to the labor force. “But in terms of absolute number, the ranks of the employed grew bigger,” Laguesma pointed out. Speaking at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, the DOLE Secretary noted with optimism on the number of employed Filipinos, in fact, made a hefty rise from 95.3 percent in March 2023 to 96.1 percent in March 2024.

Laguesma, however, conceded the unemployment rate picked up a bit during this period because also of the impact to the countryside job losses due to the El Niño phenomenon. He reassured that the Marcos administration is exerting all efforts to address the prevailing job and skills mismatch as well as geographical mismatch to further cut down the number of jobless people in the country.

The DOLE chief further noted there are more quality employment opportunities for many Filipinos. During the last Labor Day celebration, Laguesma proudly reported 5,512 job applicants were “hired on the spot” at the various “jobs fair” sites mounted all over the country. This is 11.7 percent of the estimated 47,000 registered jobseekers who participated in the simultaneous “jobs fairs” nationwide. The DOLE chief thanked 2,839 establishments and employers who participated in the “jobs fairs” that offered 235,246 employment opportunities, including slots for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In support of the employment program of the Marcos administration, Laguesma acknowledged the joint public-private initiative aptly dubbed “Trabaho Para sa Bayan: Job Opportunities Building Skills, or J.O.B.S. Laguesma along with Presidential Assistant to the President for Investments and Economic Affairs Secretary Frederick Go represented PBBM at the commitment ceremony held yesterday at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City. It was organized by the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) chaired by PBBM. The head of PSAC’s J.O.B.S. initiative is SM Investments Corp. vice chairperson Tessie Sy-Coson.

The partnership, Laguesma explained, will provide a digital platform for job seekers to find employment opportunities online while industry groups committed to use the platform to make their job vacancies available online. The SM Supermalls have been hosting weekly job fairs across various SM Malls nationwide, Laguesma cited, in coordination with DOLE and the Public Employment Service Offices (PESO) of various local government units to host “jobs fairs” and provide accessible and comfortable venues where companies and job seekers can be matched.

On her part, Sy announced that SM is in the pilot stages of our upskilling initiatives. “These initiatives form part of our J.O.B.S. commitment. And we ask the support of our industry and government partners in achieving our goal of providing employment opportunities to more Filipinos,” Sy urged.

Meanwhile, Laguesma announced he is leaving to the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) – as one of the attached agencies of the DOLE – to conduct its own investigation into the alleged “prescription for sale” controversy involving a local pharmaceutical company. Laguesma clarified the PRC is the government agency empowered by its own Charter to look into any irregularities and impose disciplinary actions against any doctor, pharmacist and other professionals who get licensed by their agency if found guilty of any violations of their respective professional oaths of office.

But as of Wednesday during the same Kapihan sa Manila Bay, Dr. Luis Raymond Go, president and chief executive officer of Belle Kenz told us there is not a single complaint filed against their pharma. After two weeks of being “bashed” in comments posted in social media, Dr. Go could only commiserate with fellow doctors drag down by accusations based on mere say so by a certain self-proclaimed health reform advocate. The Senate committee on health conducted last week a public hearing of these allegations of “unethical” and “unlawful” practices by doctors to promote Belle Kenz medicines to their patients.

A wholly-Filipino owned pharma they put up in 2006 with fellow doctors, Go reiterated his testimony at the Senate that Bell Kenz remained committed to provide affordable medicines to Filipinos and welfare of patients is its utmost priority. Go swears the prices of products supplied by Belle Kenz are 30 percent cheaper but safe and of the same efficacy, if not better compared with branded and other generic medicines.

Dr. Go though welcomes any proposed measures that would help doctors and the medical industry in the Philippines address these issues through legislation by Congress.

Like any worker or professional, doctors too need protection from practices of unfair competition.

So there is no harm if Congress will review such relevant laws or amendments of existing ones like the present Wage Law, or the Cheaper Medicines Law and the Generics Law.