President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday marked her first year in office with a day-long roadshow visiting the capital's poor as she vowed to give them more jobs in her administration's second year.

At a Muslim community in suburban Quezon City's Culiat district, Arroyo ate with residents the traditional way, using fingers before delivering a speech. "I thank all of you, and I thank God that we are able to finish our first year despite the difficulties.

"I thank the Lord that we survived a year marked by a global downturn and difficult political challenges," Arroyo said as she visited Manila's sprawling slums.

She said she is dedicating her second year as president to the working people "whether Muslims or Christians, whether they are in the provinces or in the cities."

She said she put more effort into achieving peace with the separatists in the South.

"We will work hard to achieve success with our peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and I thank the MILF for declaring that they will not ally with the extremist Abu Sayyaf and the international group Al Qaida," she said.

Culiat, which is located north of the capital, is an impoverished community peopled mainly by working class minorities.

The community in the early part of last year was raided by government soldiers who rounded up 20 people suspected of carrying out a series of bombings which killed 24 people on December 30, 2000.

The suspects were later freed because of the absence of evidence to link them to the bomb attacks.

"My administration released all those 20 suspects," she told Culiat residents. After visiting Culiat, the president and her Cabinet motored to another urban poor community in Manila's Smokey Mountain district in Tondo municipality.

Smokey Mountain, which is considered a monument to the country's impoverished, still hosts thousands of poor families despite efforts by the government to develop the area into an industrial zone.

The area is also regarded as a bastion of support for Estrada. A Smokey Mountain community leader admitted their continuing affection for Estrada, but said they were willing to accept Arroyo as the new president.

"We do not deny that we still have a place in our hearts for Erap (Estrada). But now our support is with Arroyo," said Jaime Pepino, a Smokey Mountain community leader.

Pepino spoke to Arroyo after an urban poor organisation called Anakbayan 2002 demonstrated at the former dumpsite minutes after the president left the place for a nearby garbage segregation plant.

At the plant, the president led a ceremonial segregation of the garbage. With her gloved hands, she helped separate items such as bottles and cans that rattled in front of her via a conveyor belt.

"This is the solution to all our problems on garbage," Arroyo said as she sorted the dry garbage on the belt.

The president's convoy travelled at breakneck speed from various urban poor communities in Metro Manila, in the last leg of her visits to the Napocor Village in Muntinlupa and Welfareville in Mandaluyong City.

Arroyo's barnstorm to Manila's urban communities during celebrations to mark the first year of Estrada's ouster was considered by critics an effort to draw the support of the poor and pave the way for her 2004 presidential plans.