Dear Folks,

Gloria is up to her Glo-jokes again. She congratulated the Federation of Philippine Industries on their fight against smuggling. The truth of the matter is: China recently reported that her total export to the Philippines last year was $30 billion. However, Gloria’s government said that imports from China totalled only $8 billion. So what happened to the difference of $22 billion? There is only one explanation: $22 billion worth of goods were smuggled out of China. Makes me wonder what Gloria’s Anti-Smuggling Task Force has been doing?

It is interesting to note that the malls have been flooded with name brands at very cheap prices. They’re all made in China with fake labels. Now a Pinoy can wear a ‘Rolex’ watch for P500 only.

Perry

Praise Release of Gloria

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Speech during the General Assembly and Induction of Officers of the Federation of Philippine Industries and Launching of the FPI-FFCCCII Advocacy “Buy Pinoy – Buy Local”
Grand Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinental Manila, makati city, May 2, 2008

Thank you.

Thank you Secretary Ermita for your introduction and thank you for being here at the same time that your brother is here. It turns out he’s a member of the Board of Directors of FPI. Now, we have a direct link between Malacañang and the FPI.

Chairman Carlos, President Arranza, Executive Vice President Coseteng, other officials of FPI, other officials of the Philippine government — we see Bayani Fernando and Bebot Villar here — officials of the Federation, ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, Congratulations to the newly-inducted officers of FPI. And thank you for working with the government and the rest of the business community and the labor community as well to promote the growth of the nation’s industries.

Congratulations on your fight against smuggling! Congratulations on your joint project with the Federation on your “Buy Pinoy – Buy Local” campaign. The campaign against smuggling and the campaign to ‘Buy Pinoy,’ as Jess Arranza said earlier, are related to each other because as Jess quoted earlier, “When the buying stops, smuggling stops.” So, the move to ‘Buy Pinoy’ is a market-based solution to smuggling.