**Exhibit 31.1**

**CERTIFICATIONPURSUANT TO SEC RULE 13A-14(a) / 15d-14(a)**

I, James R. McLaughlin, President & CEO of First Community Financial Corporation, certify, that:

1.          I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-QSB of First CommunityFinancial Corporation;

2.          Based on my knowledge, thisreport does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the periodcovered by this report;

3.          Based on my knowledge, thefinancial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the small business issuer as of, and for, the periods presentedin this report;

4.          The small business issuer’s othercertifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the small business issuer and we have:

(a)        designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused suchdisclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the small business issuer, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities,particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

(b)        evaluated the effectiveness of the small business issuer’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness ofthe disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

(c)        disclosed this report any change in the small business issuer’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the small business issuer’s mostrecent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the small business issuer’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5.          The small business issuer’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recentevaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the small business issuer’s auditors and the audit committee of small business issuer’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

(a)        all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design oroperation of the internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the small business issuer’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

(b)        any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or otheremployees who have a significant role in the small business issuer’s internal control over financial reporting.

 

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| Date: August 13, 2003 |   | By:  | /s/ JAMES R. MCLAUGHLIN |
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|                  |   |      | **James** **R.** **McLaughlin,** **President** **&** **CEO** |