By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

The Arroyo administration will create one million jobs within the first six months of the year as part of measures it has adopted to counter the adverse effects of the global financial crisis.

Chairman Domingo Panganiban of the National Anti-Poverty Commission said 500,000 jobs will be created within the first two months of the year starting Jan. 15. Another 500,000 jobs will be created until July.

Panganiban said funding for the emergency livelihood will initially come from the savings of government agencies involved in the job-creation program. The P300-billion economic sustainability fund will be utilized for the program, he said.

President Arroyo said she remains optimistic of the country?s economic prospects this year despite warnings from analysts that the full impact of the global crisis have yet to set in.

?This is the year that the overwhelming majority of our people have greeted with hope in their hearts despite the perils of a global economy in crisis and the dire foreboding of the usual critics and fault-finders,? the President said in her opening statement at yesterday?s full Cabinet meeting in her hometown of Iligan City.

The administration is taking the lead in pump priming the economy as it expects the private sector to hold back on spending.

With the pump-priming plan in place, the government expects to achieve its high-end growth target of 4.7 percent in gross domestic product this year.

The P300-billion pump-priming program will finance quick-moving infrastructure and job-generating projects as well as a P10-billion conditional cash transfer or subsidy for 640,000 poor families nationwide.

Panganiban said new jobs will be created in the following areas:

? construction of village pharmacies and road maintenance work in Region I;

? construction of flatbed dryers, irrigation projects and agroforestry projects in Region II;

? production of organic fertilizers and vegetable planting programs for the Cordillera Autonomous Region;

? herbal soap making, utility services for public schools, and livestock production in Region III;

? out-of-school youth employment program, hollow block making, flood control employment and microfinance for the Luzon Urban Beltway;

? street sweepers, microfinance for families of jeepney drivers, and setting up of more Tindahan Nation branches in Metro Manila;

? training for masseuses, mango puree activities, and drainage cleaning programs in Region IV-A;

? hollow blocks production and out-of-school youth employment program in Region IV-B;

? irrigation projects, repair of existing hospitals and hiring of more street sweepers in Region V;

? clean and green programs, construction of Botika ng Barangays, and dock job for the Philippine Ports Authority in Region VI;

? swine raising, coastal patrol program and organization of a Balicasag marine sanctuary in Region VII;

? construction of roads and flatbed dryers and employment of Bantay Dagat and Bantay Gubat employees in Region VIII;

? livestock production, coconut-corn intercropping, repair of health facilities, and agroforestry in Region IX;

? irrigation repair and production of organic fertilizer in Region X;

? agribusiness, irrigation projects and fisherfolk livelihood programs in Region XI;

? Kalayaan barangay construction projects, roadside maintenance, and marine management resource project in Region XII;

? agroforestry and construction of Botika ng Barangays in Region XIII; and

? microfinance for beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, roadside maintenance and fisherfolk livelihood programs for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.