Around half a million job opportunities would be open to Filipinos as the Marcos administration cooks up an investment deal with the country’s leading ride-hailing service, Grab.
The Presidential Communications Office announced this on Thursday after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with officials of Grab Holdings Inc. at the Malacañang Palace to discuss the firm’s recommendations to modernize transportation in the country.
PCO said Grab chief and co-founder Anthony Tan promised the President to implement projects that would create thousands of jobs for Filipinos, including hiring motorcycle riders to ferry passengers.
Marcos, who recognizes the private sector’s crucial role in nation-building, expressed interest in the multinational firm’s proposed programs.
“Well, that is what we need. At the very start of all of this, we had always stressed that what we have to do is create jobs right now. Because so many businesses closed, so many people really have no place to go, even the OFWs. So… we need to find jobs,” Marcos told Tan.
“So we’ve been able to do that but it’s still continuing… because our unemployment rate is not bad, but we’d like to keep bringing it down,” he added.
The country’s unemployment rate currently stands at 5 percent.
Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority’s report released in November 2022, jobless Filipinos are fewer in September last year at 2.5 million (5 percent) from 2.68 million in August (5.3 percent).
“That’s why I’m in a hurry. If we can roll this out as quickly as possible. And I know the way Grab moves, they move very, very quickly. Because you’ve done it so many times before. In the scale, you don’t have to scale it. You’ve scaled it already,” Marcos said.
Grab, which started operations in the Philippines in July 2013, is proposing the legalization of motorized taxis, noting that the pilot testing of motorized taxis is already operational for four years.
Various bills were proposed to regulate and legalize the operation of motorcycle taxis as public utility vehicles to ensure the safety and protection of the stakeholders.