Support Save Act in United States Congress to generate jobs in the Philippines

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay has called on the Filipino-American communities to campaign actively for the passage of the Save Our Industries Act or Save Act in the US Congress, saying it would generate more jobs and investments in the Philippines. 
 
According to the Vice President, the Act, if enacted, would allow the duty-free entry of apparel products made in the Philippines using US fabrics and exported to the United States.
 
"Due to stiff competition from China and the end of the US quota system, employment in the Philippine apparel manufacturing sector dropped from 600,000 jobs in 2003 to about 150,000 today,” Binay told a recent gathering of Filipino-Americans in New York.
 
Binay informed the gathering that on his last visit to Capitol Hill last February, he was assured by Senate President Pro Tempore Daniel Inouye that the latter would work for the early passage of the Act.
 
Binay then urged Filipinos and Filipino-Americans to actively campaign for the Act by writing directly to their respective senators and congressmen in order “to increase opportunities for trade and investments, and create jobs for our people in the Philippines.”
 
Binay also urged the Filipino communities in the US to be part of the national government's effort to transform the country by joining the fight against poverty and corruption.
 
He then underscored the need for all Filipinos to work as a team, in order to become “a serious nation, a serious people.”
 
 “After many false starts, we are finally on the way to becoming a serious and strong nation,” he said. “We shall build such a nation ourselves, not by falsifying or fudging our strengths and minimizing our weaknesses, but by looking at ourselves in all candor, and rediscovering the truth about who we are and what we want to be, where we want to go and what we are prepared to do to get there.”
 
Binay paid tribute to the heroism of the OFWs, but called on them to manifest even greater heroism by uniting for the common good of all Filipinos.
 
“It is easy and fashionable enough to say we should be ready to die for our freedom,” he said. “But where there is no prospect or opportunity for martyrdom, and our gravest problem is our inability to come together on virtually anything, I would on my bended knees beg each of our countrymen to give unity, justice and fortitude a chance.” 
 
Binay thanked the US government for “sheltering the Filipinos in America and their dreams.”  But he urged the Filipinos “to dream their best dreams for their beloved Philippines.”
 
In between his meetings with Filipino-American communities, Binay, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), attended a short course in international housing finance at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
 
He was joined by top executives of the various housing agencies actively working with Binay to fulfill the mandate of providing some 3.6 million homes to needy Filipinos in the next ten years.