President-elect Duterte has now appointed about 23 incoming cabinet secretaries and 18 other officials to key government bureaus and agencies.

As he keeps on ranting daily about corruption and how he plans to solve the problem that’s been rotted in almost every government office, from the barangay hall to Malacanang, I keep watching for clues about how he plans to keep the economy going and start creating more and better job opportunities for his countrymen, many of whom still consider going overseas and working for foreign masters the best option.

Sadly, I see little. Well, maybe he’s holding back on some of his more complex plans and concentrating on putting a stop to corruption first, just like Noynoy Aquino who said in 2010 that he first wanted to put an end to corruption, which he wasn’t able to do in the six years he was in office.

Aquino succeeded only in one thing as far as corruption is concerned: he shunned corruption, personally. But, no, he did not stop corruption in government; the foul smell of corruption still persists in almost all government offices to this day.

While we wait until Duterte starts weeding out the corrupt in those offices in July, we watch what he plans to do about the millions of jobless Filipinos – people who went to college or earned certifications from trade schools for skilled jobs – who are now hoping the president-elect would one day say, “Don’t worry, we will have jobs for you, you don’t have to leave the country.”

It was one thing businessmen in Metro Manila noticed when Duterte spoke to them a few times – he did not have a solid platform on how he plans to improve the economy, or at least to jumpstart it so that little by little, the job opportunities would spring up here and there, and make an impact before he leaves office after six years. He has a solid view of how he wants to stop corruption, but after that, what?

Does his plan to create a separate cabinet department for overseas Filipino workers from the Department of Labor and Employment mean anything in the way he thinks about job creation? Does that mean he is going to strengthen overseas job creation for Filipinos? Or does that mean he really cares so much about OFWs that he wanted a whole department to take care of them?

As I have been saying, two things need to be done to spur economic growth in this country – improve agricultural production so we don’t have to import most of our food requirements, and jumpstart tourism so we are able to score at least a double-digit tourist arrival figure annually.

Manny Pinol may have things lined up for a livelier production performance in agriculture than what has been going for decades. He needs to spark that up so more Filipinos could get better-paying jobs in agriculture, or be entrepreneurs in the field.

As for tourism, I hear President-elect Duterte is looking at keeping the current tourism secretary on board. I just hope he realizes that even in Davao, and on Samal Island, the tourism potential has never been fully exploited to create more opportunities for entrepreneurs and skilled workers. He should start looking for other smarter heads from where to choose the next tourism chief. Or maybe he should give the local entrepreneurs a freer hand in firing up tourism, and better government support, because the local entrepreneurs could do more about improving tourist arrival figures in their towns than any big national name could ever do.

In both these areas, modern technology will do great things as long as you make it available to the farmer in the far-flung provinces, and to the smallest resort operator in the remote towns of the country. Improve the transportation and communications infrastructure support in both fields, and you’ll see more locals wanting to stay home to do business in agriculture and tourism than going overseas.

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Congratulations to the team that now makes up the Radyo Kaamigo Community Radio Council in Payo. They were all excited to be part of the station that’s now serving the information needs of the people of Viga, Payo, and Bagamanoc on 98.9 FM. We were there last week to train both station management and production personnel. This week, we’re at Lagawe, Ifugao. Keep up the good work.