I have always told people that there are two countries one must never burn bridges with – your country of birth and second, the United States being the only super power. Everybody ends up going to the United States at one time or another and more often than not, having a US visa makes it easier for you to get visas from other countries. US presence is deemed significant especially in this part of the region, and its participation is closely watched like in the scheduled ASEAN regional forum with the US being one of the dialog partners. Some people are making a lot of fuss about the absence of US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice who is currently in the Middle East with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney, however, says there is absolutely no truth to rumors that Sec. Rice snubbed the forum because she was still sore about the pullout of the Philippine contingent in Iraq in 2004. As a matter of fact, Bert Romulo assured us that the State Secretary would be visiting the country sometime this year.
The attendance of Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte in the regional forum, representing the US and Condoleezza Rice, was a natural and smart move by Washington DC. Negroponte is well-known in the Asian and Latin American regions and of course, in the Philippines, having been the US Ambassador from 1993 to 1996 during the time of FVR. His presence is a clear signal that the US intends to play a major role in the Asian region. John Negroponte is a high powered diplomat having been an ambassador to the United Nations and in such countries like the Honduras, Mexico and Iraq. He has been described as a skilled and seasoned diplomat, a person who knows how to play hardball – diplomatically, that is.
Of course, when John Negroponte became the first ever Director of National Intelligence – a powerful Cabinet level position that put 15 different US intelligence gathering agencies including the CIA under his supervision – he became known as America’s “Super Spy.”
Reaction to Negroponte’s appointment (in February 2005) was overwhelmingly positive with the US Senate confirming him by a vote of 98 to 2. Intelligence professionals are familiar with the work of John Negroponte since those early days of counter-insurgency work during his stint as Ambassador to the Honduras during the time of Ronald Reagan. Such was the response to Negroponte’s appointment as DNI that the UK newspaper The Times even wrote that “if anyone can bring a semblance of unity to America’s bewildering network of competing spy agencies, it is John Negroponte.”
Despite his success in leading the US intel community, Negroponte gave up a powerful Cabinet position to go back to the world of diplomacy where he is most comfortable. His last diplomatic posting was actually in Iraq before he was appointed as America’s intel czar. His term as US Ambassador to the Philippines was probably one of the best periods in the relationship between our two countries especially since it was during a time of tremendous economic and political stability in this country.
Last Tuesday, Ambassador Kristie Kenney hosted a lunch to honor John Negroponte at the Embassy’s Charles Parsons Ballroom. A lot of people who knew John Negroponte when he was Ambassador to the Philippines came to the lunch. There’s no doubt Negroponte and his lovely wife Diane are an extremely popular and well-liked couple in this country. Former President Ramos was of course present along with Speaker Joe de Venecia and Senators Ed Angara, Loren Legarda and Dick Gordon. Other business people present were Wash Sycip, Jaime Augusto Zobel, Tessie Sy-Coson, Joey Concepcion, Makati Business Club’s Boy Blue del Rosario and former Philippine Ambassador to the US Albert del Rosario, among others.
Ambassador Kenney was a gracious host as always. The Deputy Secretary thanked and congratulated her, telling everyone in the group that he had been hearing a lot of good things in Washington about the great job she is doing here in the Philippines. Ambassador Kenney has been very effective in strengthening cooperation between our two countries particularly in anti-terrorism efforts and in other areas of mutual interest. The Deputy Secretary and his wife have a lot of friends here, and people who knew the couple were happy to see them again. UK Ambassador Peter Beckingham who just arrived from London showed up and he was obviously pleased to meet the London-born Negroponte. French Ambassador Gerard Chesnel was extremely impressed with Negroponte’s fluent French. The Deputy Secretary is apparently fluent in other languages like Greek, Spanish and Vietnamese and who knows, maybe even Tagalog.
Of course, the lunch would not have been complete without the presence of Manila’s top man Mayor Fred Lim, whom I congratulated for clearing up the Baywalk along Roxas Boulevard – which I’m sure made the US Ambassador happy considering that the area is more pleasant to look at now, plus the fact that it makes the job of securing the Embassy premises a lot easier.
John Negroponte’s stay in the Philippines is rather brief, leaving today for Tokyo. The last time he visited the country was when he was still a “Super Spy,” staying here for less than 24 hours.
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