US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit the victims of tropical storm Ondoy in Marikina during her 24-hour trip to the country this week, a Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
In a speech in Washington over the weekend, Clinton said her visit would “show solidarity with our friends in the Philippines who have been battered by typhoons and have just suffered so much over the last weeks.”
The country has sustained nearly P40 billion in damage to agriculture and infrastructure from storms Ondoy, Pepeng and Santi, while close to 1,000 have died and more than 86,000 remain in evacuation centers in Luzon.
This would be Clinton’s second visit to the Philippines. As first lady, she accompanied then US President Bill Clinton to the 8th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting in Manila in November 1996 that preceded the 4th Apec Economic Leaders meeting in Subic.
Clinton will stay at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza near the Film Center, which was chosen by the US Embassy for security reasons over the historic Manila Hotel, where the Clintons had first stayed.
Clinton will arrive at the Villamor Airbase at noon on Nov. 12 and fly to Singapore the following day for the Apec summit.
After a meeting with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Clinton will hold a press conference either at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza or the Bahay Pangarap at the Presidential Security Group compound next to Malacañang. She will then proceed to Marikina to visit the flood victims in an evacuation center before meeting President Gloria Arroyo for dinner in Malacañang.
Romulo said he would discuss with Clinton such topics as disaster management, climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and the Mindanao peace process.
Clinton is scheduled to attend an event at the ABS-CBN compound on the morning of Nov. 13, after which she will visit the American Cemetery and the US Embassy before flying out to Singapore.
While Clinton and Mrs. Arroyo may take up human rights issues, American aid to calamity victims and the 2010 elections, these issues were likely to be sidelined by their discussion on the fate of the military agreement in light of moves in the Philippine Senate to have the l0-year deal renegotiated or abrogated due to its “lopsided” provisions in favor of the US, Senate foreign relations committee chairman Miriam Defensor-Santiago said.
She said the Philippines was not getting the financial and military assistance that it deserved as an American ally despite the cooperation it was providing the US in its role as “the world’s policeman,” especially in its war on terror.
“We should have an attitude change towards the US,’’ Defensor-Santiago told an interview with the radio station dzBB.
“We should hold them at arm’s length. Let us look for another ally from which we can benefit most. Let us not allow our country to be a permanent satellite country of the US.”
Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar reminded Clinton not to breach protocol with the standing invitation from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for her to visit Mindanao and see the projects supported by the US Agency for International Development.
“We always welcome anybody who can help us in our peace process. It is also important for the MILF to get a favorable opinion from the Americans,” he said.
“This [peace talks] is an internal matter and it is a matter of protocol that [the Americans] should course whatever help they want to give through the government,” Olivar said, apparently referring to last month’s meeting of charge d’affaires Leslie Basset with Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ebrahim in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat.
In that secret visit, Basset was accompanied by US political officer Michael Pignagtello, USAID country director Elzaida Washington, and defense attaché Anthony Senci.
MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar said in interviews with reporters that he wanted Clinton to visit Mindanao during her brief stay in the country. With Fel V. Maragay
