P-Noy may meet Obama in September

WASHINGTON – All signs point to President Aquino visiting Washington in September for a face-to-face meeting with President Barack Obama that could determine RP-US relations well into the end of the next decade. 

Mr. Aquino has said he will likely attend the UN General Assembly in New York in September and although he has not yet discussed other destinations, his New York visit could provide him the cover for a possible official visit to Washington.

The US capital is the traditional first foreign stop of newly elected Philippine presidents but in a nod to nationalists back home Aquino cannot be seen as too eager to acquiesce to this tradition. 

As it is he is seen as too pro-American by many Filipinos and some even say it is in his DNA, having spent three happy years in Boston with his martyred father Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and his saintly mother, the late President Corazon “Cory” Aquino.

US Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Burns visited Manila recently and repeated Obama’s invitation to Mr. Aquino to visit Washington this year.

“I’m especially pleased to emphasize the high priority that President Obama attaches at this important moment, at the very beginning of the new administration of the Philippines, to our long standing partnership with your country,” Burns said.

Noynoy, as he is popularly known by most Filipinos, will never capture the magic his mother had with Americans but his convincing election victory provides an opportunity to renew and refocus the RP-US alliance, said Walter Lohman, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asia Studies Center.

Almost as important as meeting Obama, Aquino could sign a compact accord with the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) that would provide the Philippines with a windfall in development grants.

He could in effect “bring home the bacon,” a big PR boon for him.

The MCC board will be meeting in September at a date still to be decided and looks certain to approve a five-year economic development agreement granting some $500 million to the Philippines for rural development, road rehabilitation and the upgrading of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to improve collections and reduce corruption.

Most of the heavy lifting for the grant was done during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo but the MCC wants an assurance from the Aquino government it will abide by the conditions attached to the grant before it forks it over.

An MCC official said the exact date of the board meeting still had to be fixed and depended on the schedule of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is chair of the board.

If the Aquino-Obama meeting in September takes place it will probably be the first of several in the years to come.

Aquino is starting his six-year term – he cannot run for reelection under the present Constitution – while Obama is midway into his first four-year term and plans to run for a second term.

Philippine ambassador to the US Willy Gaa agreed the signs pointed to an Aquino visit in September but claimed he had no advance knowledge about it.

Unless extended Gaa is scheduled to return home before the end of the year and his successor will likely accompany Aquino to Washington to “check it out” should the September visit materialize.