RP will meet challenges, Yuchengco assures US audience

BOONE, North Carolina – A visiting Filipino diplomat, addressing the graduating class of Appalachian State University here, said Filipinos are confident they shall be able to meet the challenges facing them today.

Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco, President Arroyo’s special envoy to China, Japan and Korea, told an audience of 6,000 that challenges in the field of economics and in politics will be met "decisively to complete our democratic transition."

He informed his American listeners that at the very hour he was speaking before them on May 14 (Manila time), "our people are going through a nationwide Congressional election to determine the composition of half of our 24-member Senate and the full 200-plus complement of our House of Representatives. They are also voting for some 77 provincial governors and thousands of local officials from councilors to town and city mayors."

He said "we Filipinos have a crowded national agenda and so little time to get the basic economic and political reforms done."

But instead of brooding over this situation, Yuchengco assured his audience that "we as a people are learning to work together, to set aside narrow factional interests to make sure that the larger national interest is served."

In the field of economics, Yuchengco said his people realize the need to live with the "new economy" based on widespread access to information and intensive application of knowledge to business.

"Coping with the new economy means we must achieve qualitative improvements in productivity and in education. To be in step with globalization, we must create work people who are able to keep abreast of world-class technology and compete with the best in the region – if not the world."

While admitting that the slowdown in the US and global economies may have a "dampening effect" on Philippine efforts at recovery, he said Filipinos are "perennial optimists" and have a higher confidence that things will turn our better over the long haul.

"They feel that economic goals and objectives previously not within reach are now achievable," he said.

For one thing, Yuchengco said, his country lies in a strategic location at the center of the Asia-Pacific region. As trade flows more rapidly because of free-trade agreements under AFTA, APEC and the World Trade Organization, the Philippines’ central position in the region makes it a major transshipment center.

"Already, new special economic zones that have been established all over the country are becoming key venues for logistics companies operating in the Asia Pacific region. The Philippines hopes to attract some traffic away from the overcrowded ports of Hong Kong and Singapore," Mr. Yuchengco reported.

In politics, the Filipino diplomat said his country "must adjust to the pressure of mass democratization. This means that "our government and all its institutions must become much more efficient if they are to lead our people toward modernization. We must make our imperfect democracy work for everyday people."

Yuchengco said, the structural reforms aimed at shifting the economy’s center of gravity from protectionism to an open orientation "is being done with great care and caution. This is because we know that reform and renewal are the business not just of government – but of every citizen. Civil society, aware of its right to be consulted is slowly learning to assert itself in public affairs."

Bringing his audience up-to-date on current Philippine events, Yuchengco said:

"As the events of the past few months have shown, the Filipino people have learned to band together in order to assert the public interest against all those who would subvert it. They are being re-awakened to the simple truth that citizenship is not a part-time job – certainly not a hobby – but an everyday obligation."