President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today joined the nation in celebration of National Laity Week as the Archdiocese of Manila announced the holding of the Fourth World Meeting of the Families in Manila on January 22-26, 2003.

The President, together with daughter Evangelina "Luli" Arroyo, arrived at the Manila Cathedral at exactly 10:00 this morning and received a warm welcome from church and laity officials before the Eucharistic celebration officiated by Bishop Teodoro Bacani.

During the Mass, Bishop Bacani and Dr. Ricardo Ledesma, president of the Council of the Laity of Manila (CLM), led a pray-over offering for the President, asking the Almighty God to guide her and give her courage and strength in leading the people towards a more fruitful, peaceful and progressive future.

The Mass signalled the start of National Laity Week from September 22-28.

The CLM, the premier Church lay organization in Manila, spearheaded an archdiocesan-wide program centered on the family.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday ordered a review of the government's unilateral tariff reduction program implemented in the mid-1990s following the request of several industries that this has severely affected production.

The President, who issued the order during a meeting with members of the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) in Malacaņang Saturday afternoon, also directed the holding of another meeting to discuss the smuggling problem that is also becoming detrimental to the local industries.

Among the industries represented at the forum were textile and garments, steel, pulp and paper, footwear, and rice.

The President said she called for the meeting with the local industries precisely to reinvigorate the domestic market.

She also said she is particularly interested in the issues raised by small and medium enterprises as this sector would be responsible for stimulating the domestic demand.

The President listened intently to the issues discussed during the forum, specifically on points raised against the government's unilateral tariff program implemented in the mid-1990s.

FTA Lead Convenor Wigberto Tanada, who was present at the meeting, noted that the government has been reducing tariffs towards the Asean Free Trade Area - Common Effective Preferential Tariff (AFTA-CEPT) rates down to a band of 0 percent to 5 percent.

He said this scheme coupled with the government's unilateral tariff reduction program is to the detriment of the local industries and agriculture.

Aside from local industry leaders, the meeting was attended by members of the automotive industry workers who complained of illegal importation of second-hand vehicles, which they considered a form of smuggling.

A position paper submitted by the Automotive Industry Workers Alliance (AIWA) said that from 1997 to 1999, there were at least 6, 914 retrenched employees because of low production in the assembly plants of Mitsubishi Motor, Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, Isuzu Philippines, Honda and auto parts manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the ceramic tile industry is complaining of the increasing volume of cheap, substandard imported tiles which do not comply with Philippine standards for durability.

The footwear industry called on the government to impose strict quality control standards to ensure that only high quality shoes enter the country.

It also called on the authorities to strictly implement the Consumer Act of the Philippines where appropriate product labeling specific to footwear is mandated.

In its position paper, the footwear industry noted that footwear products from China are sold at almost one-third the cost of locally-produced goods.

Dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFW) continued to be a significant source of exchange earnings, expanding by 43.2 percent to $4.143 billion in the first semester compared to the year-ago level.

A Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) report reaching Malacaņang said this strong showing from the OFW sector boosted the balance of payments that yielded a $1.729-billion surplus from January to June, reversing a $606-million deficit in the same period in 2001.

It also pushed the country’s income account that increased by more than twofold to reach $2.750 billion, the BSP report said.

The report noted that the rise in the number of deployed newly hired and rehired OFWs contributed to the dollar remittance uptrend.

Deployment rose by 4.1 percent during the review period and the growth in OFW deployment was seen in Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Most deployed OFWs landed in transport equipment operation, professional, technical and other related jobs abroad.

The BSP report said the government continued to step up marketing missions to promote Filipino skills.

Prospects, it said, were bright, with the expanded hiring of the United Kingdom of OFWs in the medical field, which is expected to offset the impact of the trend towards "localization" and the economic slowdown experienced in some of the countries where Filipino workers are deployed.

Localization means the preferential hiring by a country of its own residents.

A recent report from the Department of Labor and Employment showed that as of September 1, a total of 638,875 OFWs, or an average of 2,618 daily, were deployed abroad.

Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas said the deployment of documented Filipino workers abroad could reach one million this year due to global demand and preference for their services and skills.

Sto. Tomas stressed that the continued absorption of OFWs by foreign-based employers mirrored the global competitiveness of Filipino workers and the country's human resource edge.

Aside from their highly rated skills, reliability, and productivity, Filipinos are culturally adaptable and can clearly and fluently communicate in English, the accepted international language, she said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said of the 638,875 OFWs deployed overseas for the eight-month period, 497,577 are land-based workers and 141,298 are seafarers.

The government, through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), has put up a Norwegian sea cage worth some P907,000 in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay to enhance milkfish and other finfish production in the area.

A report reaching Malacaņang from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) in Western Mindanao said the construction of the circular marine sea cage was started in July and completed in August.

The report cited efforts of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to bring social services, particularly in the area of food production and stability, where they were most needed, in the poor rural areas. The President had stressed this in her State of the Nation Address.

The President had visited the Zamboanga peninsula and inspected government projects in the area in recent weeks.

According to the PIA report, BFAR Region 9 information officer Trusiya Maldan said the Payao local government helped stock the fish cage with milkfish and other finfish.

The project beneficiaries have helped stock the fish cage with fingerlings, Maldan said.

Under the project, a 60-40 management and income-sharing ratio had been adopted in favor of the beneficiaries.

Revenues generated from the project would either go to the maintenance of the fish cage or the construction of another unit for other groups of beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the PIA also reported that in Barangay Binuangan, Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, at least 32 cooperative members have benefited from the BFAR’s P1.3-million Lambaklad fish corral project.

Lambaklad is the Philippine version of the Otoshi-Ami fishing method of Japan. Commercial in nature but put up in municipal waters, it is operated like a deep-sea fish corral and harvests are done daily.