Enrile says RP-China joint action plan to boost ties

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has expressed confidence that diplomatic and economic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PROC) will further flourish with the forthcoming signing of the RP-China Joint Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation.

Enrile made the statement during a brief meeting with Liu Qi, a senior member of the Communist Party of China, who paid him a courtesy call last week.

During their meeting, Enrile told Liu that he was satisfied with the final draft of the RP-China Joint Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation, a five-year bilateral loan framework. The loan agreement was put on hold following allegations of corruption over the botched National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

As envisioned in the loan agreement, Beijing committed $2.10 billion in infrastructure project assistance to the Philippines , but the release of the funds is pending until the two governments sign a loan agreement. The loan framework was supposed to fund Philippine government projects in agriculture, fishery, public works and infrastructure, housing, mineral resource development and energy, among others.

Enrile also assured his Chinese visitors that the Senate would make positive recommendations with the Executive Department to iron out unsolved matters related to the Philippine’s implementation of the Chinese-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.

The PROC’s Ministry of Commerce has reportedly complained that the Philippines has not fulfilled its commitments to reduce tariff rates on Chinese goods important to the Philippines effective last January.

For his part, Liu lauded Enrile for his role in promoting better relations between their two countries and for supporting the One-China policy. He said the “increasing mutual trust and deepening economic cooperation” between China and the Philippines would eventually benefit the peoples of the two nations.

Enrile recalled that he was a member of the Cabinet of then President Marcos when the Philippine started diplomatic relations with China and other socialist countries in 1975.

At that time, he said there was “initial distrust with China intentions” but the misgivings soon disappeared and the relations between the two countries “boomed into a vibrant and productive partnership.”

Enrile also thanked the Chinese government for extending an economic stimulus package to the Philippines worth $588.2 million to counter the effects of the current economic crunch. He said Chinese businessmen are welcome to invest in the Philippines , particularly in the areas of agriculture, mining and tourism. 

Liu’s Manila visit is part of a goodwill trip to several Southeast Asian countries, with Manila as the second leg of Liu’s four-nation visit. He first went to Cambodia and would later go to Malaysia and Indonesia . 

Liu, 66, is the “first-in-charge” of Beijing . As the party’s top official in Beijing, he is more powerful than the mayor, a position he occupied from 1999-2003. The political bureau or politburo oversees the party, and bureau members are nominally appointed by the central committee, the highest authority in the party.