Palace refutes IBON Foundation, says PH employment at good rate

Panelo cited data from the PSA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which showed that 826,000 jobs were created in the country in 2018 alone. (File Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — Malacañang on Friday refuted the study by think tank IBON Foundation regarding the status of employment generation in the country under the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“The employment rate under the Duterte Administration remains very good registering as high as 95.3 percent in October 2016 to a low of 93.4 percent in January 2017, as per data from the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority). One must therefore ask the methodology undertaken by IBON Foundation on how it arrived at its figures regarding the employment situation in the first two years of the Administration,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

Panelo cited data from the PSA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which showed that 826,000 jobs were created in the country in 2018 alone.

He said IBON Foundation’s claim that only 81,000 jobs are created annually is “mathematically impossible.”

“One must also ask if the said foundation is inept or just maliciously reckless to degrade the achievements of the President,” Panelo said.

In its report released on Thursday, IBON Foundation claimed that job creation in 2017-2018 was the slowest among post-Marcos administrations.