MANILA – President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino has confirmed that his first foreign trip will be to the US where a meeting with President Barack Obama will be the highlight of his visit.
Malacanang announced that also highlighting the President’s visit in September in which the exact dates have yet to be finalized is his speech during the opening session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Malacanang announced that Secretary Cesar Purisima of the Department of Finance has already laid the groundwork of the visit.
While in Washington, Malacanang also said Aquino will witness the signing of a $434 million grant of the government-run US Millenium Challenge Corporation to help the Philippines in its campaign to alleviate pervasive poverty especially in the countryside as well as fight corruption.
The US has withheld the release of the $434 million to the Arroyo administration for its reported failure to meet the stiff standards demanded.
However, Aquino has assured Washington of full transparency in the use of such funds only for their intended purposes and that these would not fall into the hands of corrupt officials.
While in the US, Malacanang said he will meet with American and Filipino-American to encourage them to invest in the Philippines aimed mainly for job generation.
“Job generation is the first priority and America is still one of our biggest trading partners,” the President emphasized. “We will go there and try to make the country even more attractive to all of these investors in the hope of generating jobs.”
At the same time, Aquino said he will meet Filipino-Americans who have established businesses in the US, particularly those engaged in venture capital industries.
According to the President, these businessmen find it difficult to invest in the Philippines primarily because the country lacks the human resources to meet their needs.
Aquino also admitted it has not yet been determined if the status of the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two countries would be discussed with US officials.
The agreement allows the entry of American military forces into the country to help in the anti-terror campaign like in Mindanao as well as conduct “war exercises” with their Filipino counterparts.
The Philippine Senate has passed a resolution to abolish or renegotiate the agreement, with Aquino as one of the signatories when he was still a senator.
In his campaign speeches, Aquino has vowed to limit the number of foreign trips to save money in sharp contrast to those undertaken by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who made a total of more than 80 such trips in her nine years of power and often accompanied by a large retinue of hangers-on, mostly her favorite travelling companions from the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) pointed out there are “must foreign travels”which require Aquino’s presence like the summit meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to be hosted by Vietnam in October.
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