Washington's sked too tight for Estrada

There will be no state visit by President Estrada next month to the United States.

This was revealed yesterday by well-placed sources at the Department of Fo-reign Affairs (DFA), who said that Washington is not ready to accommodate Mr. Estrada in US President Bill Clinton's schedule.

Clinton, they said, will be receiving numerous guests in April and will have no time to meet with the Philippine leader.

Some DFA officials, however, speculated that the White House may have opted not to accommodate Mr. Estrada because of Manila's handling of Washington's request for the extradition of Filipino businessman Mark Jimenez.

Clinton had invited Pre-sident Estrada to the US when they met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in New Zealand last September.

Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda, now the ambassador to Washington, submitted a report to the DFA recently on Clinton's schedule for the first quarter of this year.

The schedule reportedly did not include a meeting with Mr. Estrada. Maceda informed the DFA immediately so it would no longer wait for a formal invitation for President Estrada from the White House.

Earlier, Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said they were still awaiting word from the White House on the most convenient date for President Estrada to meet with Clinton.

The Philippines and the United States concluded last week a series of large-scale joint military exercises in the country.

Jimenez, who once served as Mr. Estrada's adviser on Latin American affairs, is facing a string of criminal cases in the US involving alleged anomalous contributions to the campaign fund of the Democratic Party.

And while Washington has urged Manila to comply with their extradition treaty, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that Jimenez cannot be extradited unless he is given a copy of the extradition request and the chance to rebut it.

Siazon said the President would want to visit the US and China this year, considered the Year of the Dragon by the Chinese. He noted that the President may still go to China this May.

China and the Philippines are embroiled in a controversy on the disputed Spratly group of islands which Manila claims was within its territory.

The islands are in the South China Sea and are being claimed in whole or in part by at least five other countries.