Many people may have lost jobs in 2002. But the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has succeeded in providing gainful employment to a number equal to two-thirds of those either retrenched or displaced last year.

A report reaching Malacaņang showed that DOLE's Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) had assisted 51,885 displaced workers, or two-thirds of the 77,601 reported displacements in 2002.

Sustained local and overseas interventions the DOLE carried out the whole year strongly dented the negative impact of job losses, said acting Labor and Employment Secretary Manuel G. Imson.

The QRTs, based in DOLE regional offices nationwide, facilitated re-employment, livelihood support, training, re-tooling and other programs that helped ease the plight of retrenched workers and their families.

The DOLE's Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) noted that QRTs also provided temporary jobs to 2,328 displaced workers' dependents under the agency’s Special Program for the Employment of Students during their Christmas and summer respite from school.

Imson formed the QRTs to monitor and respond effectively to retrenchments pursuant to DOLE Department Order No. 7, Series of 2001.

"Malaking bagay ang maging bahagi ng mga manggagawa sa oras ng kanilang kagipitan (Helping displaced workers in their hour of need goes a long way)," he said.

The BLE reported the placement of 742,586 people in all types of jobs in the first 10 months of 2002, a factor that offset retrenchments.

BLE's preliminary data showed that public employment service offices nationwide accounted for the majority, or 679,236 of the placements. The assistance benefited regular job seekers as well as displaced, migratory, rural, disabled, and other disadvantaged workers.

Job fairs, the BLE said, accounted for 17,063 placements while private recruitment and placement agencies, for 46,287 nationwide.

In admitting to the assassination of Romulo Kintanar, the NPA really tags itself as a terrorist and criminal organization of the worst kind. This clearly justifies the government’s policy of counter force against the CPP-NPA which has lost all legitimacy in its struggle.

The President calls upon our people to lend full support to the police and the military in a sustained offensive against the CPP-NPA in the countryside and in the urban areas where some of their militant cells are operating.

The President has ordered no letup in the campaign against criminals and terrorist insurgents who will be given no quarter in this fight.

The President has directed the AFP and the PNP to conduct intelligence saturation drives to flush out underground cells and to expose the front organizations that are according them political and material support and sanctuary.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been directed to work closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs to bring before the eyes of the international community more evidence of the terrorist and criminal acts of the CPP-NPA and to file charges against terrorist leaders trying to escape justice in foreign lands by cloaking themselves as revolutionary figures.

This conflict shall be settled by resorting to all the means within the democratic arsenal, including the use of legitimate force and principled negotiation under our Constitution.