Bush is 6th US president to visit RP

US President George W. Bush will be the sixth sitting American president to visit the Philippines since 1960.

Bush will arrive in Manila on Oct. 18 for an eight-hour state visit, but nevertheless important to boost further RP-US trade relations and the global fight against terrorism.

The first American president to visit the Philippines was Dwight Eisenhower, who made a three-day state visit to Manila from June 14 to 16, 1960, fifteen years after the end of the Pacific War.

The other US presidents who previously visited the Philippines were Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

For Filipinos, the most memorable visit by a US president was that of Eisenhower when an estimated 1.5 million to two million Filipinos turned en mass to welcome him.

It was the biggest crowd of well-wishers Filipinos accorded to a foreign visitors, rivaled only 45 years later when Pope John Paul II came to Manila where some five million Filipino faithful attended a concelebrated Mass during the World Youth Day at Rizal Park in January 1995.

That single gathering was believed to be the largest in the world that could land in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Last May when President Arroyo made a state visit to Washington, she extended an invitation to the American president for a state visit to the Philippines. Bush gladly accepted the invitation.

Bush will be in Manila for only eight hours, but his bilateral talks with Mrs. Arroyo will have a great impact to further improve RP-US relations, both from the standpoint of economics and military aspects.

Economics because the United States is one of the top two leading business partners of the Philippines.

In defense matters, most of the military hardware in the inventory of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are US made.

The AFP is in the midst of a modernization program as it is lagging far behind with neighboring countries.

The Philippines is looking forward to buy from the US weapons and equipment, including F-16 fighter planes to replace the aging F-5 interceptors of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), and new missile gunboats to guard the country’s vast coastlines which are twice as that of the United States.

Intensive security preparations have been in full swing the past few weeks to ensure that Bush will be out of harms way during his visit to Manila in the face of global terrorist threats.

US Secret Service agents are already in Manila to prepare for the arrival of the US president.

Like all previous visits by American presidents, the US Secret Secret is leaving no stone unturned to shield Bush and give no elbow room to would-be assassin or terrorist to mount a sneak attack.

The visit of Eisenhower 43 years ago was a nightmare to both American and Filipino security personnel because the US president rode in an open Cadillac car with then President Carlos P. Garcia as they made a motorcade snaking through the busy thoroughfares of Metro Manila on June 14, 1960.

"Filipino and American security agents jumped from their cars and jogged alongside the presidential vehicle through most of the downtown route as a protective shield and to keep the motorcade from being stalled by the crowds," the Official Gazette in its June 20, 1960 issue, said.

"President Eisenhower waved his arms and smiled while standing in the open Cadillac as he rode through a thick ticker tape reception on the Escota," it said.

"Some crowds stood ten to twenty-five deep in Manila to get a glimpse of the visiting dignitary who had described his trip earlier at the airport as ‘indeed homecoming.’ Thousands of others perched on rooftops and balconies, while a forest of miniature Philippine and American flags fluttered from waving hands," the Gazette added.

Eisenhower was not a stranger to the Filipinos. Before the war broke out, Eisenhower was the senior assistant to US Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the overall commander of US forces in the Philippines from 1935-1939. MacArthur led US forces in liberating the Philippines from Japanese invaders on Oct. 20, 1944.

In fact, when Eisenhowever landed at the Manila International Airport (MIA) aboard his plane, the Colombine III, his first words were: "It’s homecoming for me."

During his three-day state visit, Eisenhowever stayed at Malacañang in the room which former Presidents Elipidio Quirino and Ramon Magsaysay occupied.

Security was strict during the entire duration of Eisenhower’s stay in Malacañang. Agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who were security of the US president at that time, were crawling all over the Palace.

So tight was the security that a press office movie cameraman assigned by the press secretary to take pictures of Eisenhower’s arrival at the Palace was stopped by a security officer.

That was the way it was and it will be the same during the visit of Bush.

During Eisenhower’s three-day stay in Manila, he had the time to meet many of his Filipino friends. Among them were Maj. Gen. Pelagio Cruz, Eisenhower’s classmate in flying lesson, Col. Ramon Zosa, one of Eisenhower’s flight instructors, and Justino Lebardo, a driver of Malacañang, who used to drive the car of Eisenhower during his inspection trips to northern Luzon.

"We are with you, Mr. President," President Garcia told the visiting US President during the arrival ceremony, "as your friend and your ally in the great cause that as free men we have pledged to defend with all our might and mind in complete identification with the rest of the freedom-loving and peace-loving humanity."

Earlier, Eisenhower acknowledged the existence of some irritants in the US-RP relations when he said:

"Among us, between us, just as it has always been the case between members of the family, are some problems to be discussed, to be talked about, to negotiate, but that negotiation and conference take place in a spirit of common dedication to the ideals that make us true partners."

President Garcia gave the visiting US President as gift, a piña barong Tagalog.

And when he learned that Eisenhower liked the delicious Philippine mangoes, he ordered a big basket and sent it to the US Embassy for the US Chief Executive to bring with him on his way back home via Taipei.

Eisenhower’s state visit to Manila had enhanced RP-US relations

The forthcoming visit of President Bush is expected to duplicate just that. — PNA