Senator Panfilo Lacson, banking on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to create more jobs, signaled Friday that boosting MSMEs will be high on his to-do list if he wins the presidency.
Lacson affirmed his belief that the revival of MSMEs is “the key to addressing unemployment.”
“Reviving our micro, small and medium enterprises should be the government’s priority in tackling the problem of unemployment,” said Lacson, who is running as an independent candidate in the upcoming presidential derby.
In a separate interview in Bogo, Cebu, Lacson pointed out that MSMEs have yet to fully recover from extended lockdowns imposed by the current administration in response to threat posed by the deadly pandemic, amid “new challenges such as rising costs of fuel.”
“We should revive our MSMEs, which are the biggest supplier of labor,” the senator stressed. “Our MSMEs should be the first to be revived.”
Lacson added that MSMEs account for 99.5 percent of our enterprises and 63.2 percent of our labor force.
Earlier in the week, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that unemployment rate in February was at 6.4 percent, which meant at least 3.13 million were unemployed in February 2022.
The senator added that if he wins the presidency, among his first task would be to “ensure easier access for MSMEs to financial assistance,” recalling that he and his vice presidential bet Senate President Vicente Sotto III both vowed to set up a mechanism for this.
Lacson also noted that various government agencies have at least 20 programs including microfinancing and credit facilities, but added: “MSMEs may not be aware of them.”
“Senate President Sotto and I are thinking of streamlining all this,” Lacson said, adding that as president, his administration will also set up programs for skills matching, such that the basis of employment will be one’s skills and not age or “disability.”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes