RP, Japan reaffirm commitment to boost partnership

Manila and Tokyo reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen their partnership in resolving bilateral as well as regional and global concerns, such as international terrorism.

Both President Arroyo and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made the reaffirmation in their bilateral talks during the President’s just-concluded working visit to Japan.

"As strategic allies of the United States, Prime Minister Koizumi and I confirmed our readiness to extend our utmost assistance. And very importantly too, as charter members of the UN and as part of international coalition against terrorism, we must actively implement UN Security Resolution 1368 which was passed unanimously last Sept. 12," Mrs. Arroyo said.

The President returned yesterday from what she described as a "resoundingly successful trip," although the visit was made after the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.

The Philippines was among the first nations to support US calls for an international coalition to crush terrorism.

"As a member of the community of nations, the Philippines will join in international efforts to combat terrorism to the fullest extent possible allowed by the law of our country and as dictated by our national interest and our international obligations," she said.

"As a friend and ally of the United States, this means that we will also provide appropriate assistance consistent with our capability in accordance with the spirit of our security relationship and our bilateral Mutual Defense Treaty with the US," she added.

But while Mrs. Arroyo did not specify what involvement the Philippines would take in the US-led anti-terrorism coalition, aides said she would detail the country’s possible contributions to the coalition next week.

"Of course, the United States is taking the lead in strategizing. So what the United States feels the Philippines can do, we will do," she said.

The President returned from Tokyo via a Philippine Airlines Airbus 320 flight to Legazpi City in Albay, where she attended a memorial Mass for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the US.

Reporting on the fruits of her trip to Japan, Mrs. Arroyo said she was able to stave off further cuts in the official development assistance (ODA) after she stressed to Japanese officials that the country has improved its capacity to utilize Japanese ODA.

"During the first three months of my administration, we were able to bring the rate of disbursement of loan projects at a rate of 94 percent of targets, the highest ratio in the history of our ODA from Japan and probably the highest in the region today," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo also cited the signing of a $338.9 million loan agreement for the Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway project, financed mainly by Japan through the Obuchi fund.

Sumitomo Metal Mining Corp. also pledged to invest some $150 million in its nickel processing plant in Rio Tuba, Palawan, she said.

Top executives of Sumitomo Koichi Fukushima made this investment pledge to Mrs. Arroyo when they called on her at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel where she and her official party were billeted.

The Rio Tuba mining project, which will start operations in 2004, is expected to generate some 1,000 new jobs during its three-year construction period plus another 1,000 new jobs when it starts to operate.

The President also witnessed the signing of five memoranda of agreement (MOAs) between Filipino businessmen and their Japanese counterparts. Among the MOAs are:

• Between Pacific Consultants and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Pacific for the $215 million port project.

• Between the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and the Saga Prefectural Federation of Agricultural Cooperative of Japan to promote employment and human resource development.

• Between the TUCP and Kyushu Bussan Shjoji Co. Ltd., promoting labor cooperation in high quality marine resources

• Between Asia Solutions Philippine Inc. and Seiko Electric Co. Ltd. for an information technology training and learning programs in the country for two years.

• Between Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines and the Japan Information Technology Examination Center to promote cooperation in information technology testing and certification.

Before returning to the Philippines, Mrs. Arroyo spoke before the Global Business Dialogue on E-Commerce where she created a Cabinet-level Information Technology and E-Commerce Council which she herself chars and whose task is to formulate and implement ICT policies in the Philippines.

She also witnessed the formal launching of the Internet Learning Kiosk (iLINK) project of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and Ayala Corp.

A copy of the document launching iLINK was ceremonially presented to the President by Ayala Corp. vice chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Mitsubishi chairman Minoru Makihara.

She also invited Makihara and National Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) president Junichiro Miyazu to join her newly formed International Board of Advisers.

GMA seeks guidance

In Naga City, the President sought guidance from the Our Lady of Peñafrancia to help her government in the fight against terrorism.

"Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia, Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us," she said after witnessing the famous fluvial procession and arriving at the Basilica Minore of the Caceres Cathedral Center compound.

She was warmly greeted by thousands of devotees of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and responded by shaking hands with them instead of passing through a cleared aisle secured by the Presidential Security Group.

"Tomorrow, let us take up again the torch of freedom, I call on her countrymen to go to churches, mosques and other places of worship to pray to the Almighty," she said.

She had declaration today as a national day of prayer and solidarity with the American people following the deadly attacks in New York and Washington.

Mrs. Arroyo said the Philippine government is extending all-out support to the US as it leads the fight against global terrorism. – With Cet Dematera