ManilaMailDC.Net - 3-day visit includes speech in UN

NEW YORK - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was to arrive here September 26 for a three-day visit to address the UN General Assembly, meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, attend the Clinton Global Initiative and meet with the Filipino American community in New Jersey.

Filipino activist groups, including FiRE and GABRIELA, have vowed to give Arroyo a “red hot” welcome during her three-day stay Sept. 26-28 in the Big Apple. Last month, the leader of GABRIELA was prevented from leaving Manila after attending a human rights conference allegedly because she was on the “watchlist.”

The schedule released by the Philippine consulate in New York prior to Arroyo’s departure from Manila was different from the one released by Malacanang. Earlier, Philippine Deputy Consul General Millie Thomaczeck told the media that Ms. Arroyo, besides speaking at the UN, would attend a women’s forum at the Waldorf Astoria organized by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. She said Arroyo will then probably meet with Rice to discuss security and women’s issues.

But Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that after delivering the Philippines’ Country Report to the UN General Assembly, Mrs. Arroyo will meet with the UN Secretary General to discuss a wide range of issues affecting the Philippines and Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He did not mention the women’s forum organized by Rice. The UN General Assembly meeting opened Sept. 26 and World leaders are expected to address it. The Palace provided no details on issues the President would raise before the world body, although the Chief Executive earlier indicated in a speech that she would tackle the successes of the peace process in Mindanao. Bunye said she is also scheduled to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative, a forum organized in 2005 by her former Georgetown University classmate, former US President Bill Clinton.

He said the forum will “bring together global leaders, including heads of state, non-profit organizations, charities and business leaders to discuss challenges facing the world today and devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges."

World Bank president Robert Zoellick, H. Lee Scott, president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will join Mrs. Arroyo in the opening plenary, he said. The forum will explore the transformative capacity of businesses, governments, and NGOs to collaboratively develop and implement sustainable solutions.

He said the President will take the opportunity while in New York to meet the leaders of the US-Asean Business Advisory Council in a roundtable discussion over lunch to be hosted by Martin Sullivan, chief executive officer of AIG.

Other presidential engagements include calls by officials of the Millennium Challenge Corp., which oversees the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), bank and financial officials and current US investors in the Philippines. “Before flying back to Manila, the President may drop in at the matinee performance of her favorite international performer, Lea Salonga, who is playing the role of Fantine in the Broadway musicale Les Miserables," Bunye said. Filipino American women activists affiliated with the Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) and GABRIELA have vowed to greet Arroyo with protests during her scheduled three-day visit. Other human rights groups have also vowed to launch their own demonstrations against the visit of Arroyo.

In her talk with the New York media earlier, Thomaczeck said that Ms. Arroyo will meet top executives and businessmen to discuss joint ventures and foreign investments to the Philippines. “The Philippine delegation has prepared a smart power point presentation to attract American investors to invest in technology, outsourcing, mining, accounting and other enterprises in the Philippines," she said.

Thomaczeck said that on September 28, Ms. Arroyo will meet leaders and representatives of Filipino American organizations at The Teaneck Marriott at Greenpointe in New Jersey to ask them to help in nation building. FiRE Chair Valerie Francisco said that despite having a woman head of state, the Philippines’s political and economic situation is far from being women-friendly. “By virtue of command responsibility, Macapagal-Arroyo leads a Philippine military that unabashedly sows terror through extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and crackdown on broad opposition forces."

“The Philippines is still in a state of martial law, only undeclared,” Francisco said, noting that the Macapagal-Arroyo government has been the “target of worldwide public scrutiny and accusation that her administration was not seriously addressing the worst human rights crisis in Philippine history since the time of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos."

FiRE, a member-organization of the U.S. chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-USA or New Patriotic Alliance), will be joined by supporters from the Filipino community and other groups in the U.S. The group will also hold an open house on September 28 at the Bluestockings Bookstore.

Malacanang said Arroyo was to return to Manila on Friday. She is also scheduled to make a trip to China to seek P8.4 billion in development aid despite the raging controversy over the national broadband network deal between the government and Chinese firm ZTE Corp. Before leaving Manila, she temporarily suspended the contract in the hope of halting the Senate investigation.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said he would join the President on her China trip on Oct. 2-3. The President will visit Shanghai and Shandong before heading for New Delhi and Mumbai in India. Yap said Chinese assistance is being eyed for at least four agriculture projects including the rehabilitation of the Agno River Irrigation System, which Mrs. Arroyo promised to prioritize in her State of the Nation Address. The project aims to irrigate an additional 3,416.5 hectares of farmlands in San Manuel, Asingan, Binalonan and Villasis in Pangasinan.

More than 2,600 farm families are expected to benefit from the project, which is also expected to generate 1,200 new jobs.

The project is also expected to increase rice production in Pangasinan by 26,307 tons. Yap said that he would also be asking for Chinese assistance for the Balintingon River Multipurpose project in Nueva Ecija, which he said would benefit anywhere from 16,000 to 26,000 hectares of farmlands in Central Luzon, including Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Pampanga.

Another project being readied for Chinese funding is the rehabilitation of the Navotas fish port. “The Navotas fish port has long fallen into disrepair so we need to fix that for food security and storage purposes," Yap said.

The fourth project involves providing mobile refrigeration facilities for fishing communities in various parts of the country.

Yap noted that several fishing communities do not have cold storage facilities for their catch. “So these are four projects we’re looking at when we go to China,” Yap said. He said his department would first seek the approval of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) “before we can sign anything.”

He said the government would seek a payment period of at least 20 years.
He said NEDA is scheduled to discuss the projects today before they are presented to China. It was in Boao, China where Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE officials signed last April 21 the broadband agreement in the presence of Mrs. Arroyo.