More Theresa Pangilinans in the making due to job scarcity
05/01/2006
Thousands of this year’s graduates, students and out-of-school youth are expected to join the huge Labor Day protests today, the Kabataan Sectoral Party announced yesterday.
Kabataan Party president and Youth Demanding Arroyo’s Removal (Youth Dare) spokesman Raymond Palatino said the youth, particularly fresh college graduates, have every reason to join today’s demonstrations as the government miserably failed to provide adequate jobs for new college graduates and solve the growing unemployment and underemployment problem in the country.
“Every year, fresh college graduates are confronted with the same problem of job scarcity, but our government’s response has always been for the former to look for greener pastures abroad or accept its job offerings which are not commensurate with their degrees,” he added.
“Only four of every 10 graduates are expected to land a job within this year, and most of them will be at call centers or abroad,” Palatino pointed out.
He said the (Arroyo) government’s failure to solve the unemployment problem and its crisis of legitimacy are creating more Theresa Pangilinans and are pushing the youth to call for Mrs. Arroyo’s removal.
“The worsening political and economic situation under this government is compelling more young Filipinos to follow Theresa’s example and join calls for Arroyo’s ouster. We expect more Theresa Pangilinans to come out and join the Labor Day rally on Monday,” he stressed.
Palatino also chided the Arroyo government for putting more priority in changing the Constitution and pursuing its own political interests than generating more jobs for graduating college students.
“It seems that this government wants to focus more on how to preserve its power than to deal with the pressing problems confronting its constituents,” he said.
“It is appalling to know that the government can pour in money for Charter change yet it can’t even find ways to create more decent jobs and address the growing unemployment problem in the country,” he added. Jun P. Yap