Angara: Revive shoe, fiber industries

Sen. Edgardo Angara filed two separate bills seeking the revival of the leather/footwear and fiber industries which he said have fallen prey to globalization and cheap imports.

Angara said reviving the two key industries would make them competitive in the global market, create niche export products and create at least one million new jobs for Filipinos.

He said the leather/footwear and fiber industries have been popularized in the Philippines by Marikina shoes and leather goods and jusi, abaca and piña products.

"There should be a sustained the conscious effort to help former sunshine sectors recover lost glory. It is both practical from an economic sense and from restoring national pride," he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Manny Villar disclosed that farmers groups, vegetable wholesalers and retailers and concerned government officials from Benguet and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) are holding a series of rallies and have written an urgent appeal to President Arroyo for adoption of measures that would save the local vegetable industry.

Villar, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said there was a need to review the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provision lifting quantitative restrictions on vegetables in the entire country since this may be detrimental to Filipino farmers.

Benguet has lost P21 billion in unfulfilled transactions between July and August this year after cheap imports displaced the province’s vegetables.

The local vegetable industry is expected to lose P60 million a year and will displace over a million vegetable growers if the unabated entry of cheap vegetable imports continues, Villar warned. — Sammy Santos