Domestic helpers help economy more than mining–study

Domestic helpers help economy more than mining–study

Understanding the PH mining industry in yet another context: domestication.

"Domestic household workers “contributed at least P167.4 billion worth of services and remittances to the economy” while the mining industry contributed only P122.1 billion to the economy based on the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Sonny Africa of Ibon Foundation said in a recent statement.


"In terms of job generation, “there were 1.95 million domestic help employed in the country, aside from some 1.3 million more overseas,” Africa said. In comparison, only 211,000 were employed in mining, Africa said.
Africa said in a later interview that they chose to look at domestic work “as a reference point to put mining into context because its among the lowest valued economic activities in the country, and moreover is something readily familiar on a daily basis for most Filipinos [including mining execs themselves].” 
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"“The long-term loss of Philippine mineral resources is irreversible,” Africa said.
In order for the Philippines to benefit from its limited mineral wealth, there should be a domestic industry “that processes its mineral wealth and uses these as inputs for manufacturing higher-value intermediate and final goods,” Africa said in another statement.


"Mining firms currently just extract the country’s mineral resources which are exported for the benefit of foreign industries. These industries then process the minerals to create goods that the Philippines imports at a much higher price than when they bought the raw minerals.


"The current value generated by mineral extraction and export is estimated to be $840 billion but “if there are Filipino industries to process these minerals and manufacture intermediate and final goods, these could be used to create at least US$7.3 trillion or more worth of products,” Africa said."