DFA: Leaks affecting Phl

WASHINGTON – Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo lamented the disclosure by WikiLeaks of more than 250,000 confidential US embassy cables and said “we will have to confront it.”

Asked if he expected a call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the leaks, which provide unprecedented insight into US foreign activities, he said, “I expect they will tell each of their allies.”

As Romulo spoke to Filipino reporters at the inauguration on Wednesday of the new consular office of the Philippine embassy here, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley at the Washington Foreign Press Center said the US was mounting a major effort at damage control to contain fallout from the leaks.

Crowley said aggressive actions have been taken to reach out to friends and allies “to express our regret for what has happened... and to demonstrate our commitment to our ongoing relationship.”

Asked what would make Clinton pick up the phone and make a call, Crowley said, “We have 190 countries, give or take, with which we have diplomatic relations. We only have one secretary of State.”

“She has made some calls to world leaders. She is going to make more calls to world leaders. But we have reached out to every government in some fashion to express our regret for what has happened,” he added.

Romulo is on a visit to Washington to lobby US legislators to support the proposed Save the Industries Act and the Family Reunification bill which seeks to allow about 20,000 sons and daughters and minor grandchildren of US Filipino veterans to join them.

The SAVE Act would grant duty-free status to garments and apparel wholly assembled in the Philippines, on condition that these are made of US-made textiles, fabrics, yarn and cotton.

Supporters said aside from creating some 2,000 jobs in the US, the passage of the bill would create some 200,000 jobs in the Philippines.

Romulo said he was confident the US Congress will pass the SAVE Act if not this year, then most certainly next year. 

He said in his talks with Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, the main architect of the compensation package for Filipino World War II veterans, Inouye promised to continue sponsoring bills that would benefit the Philippines, in particular the SAVE Act.

He said he handed Inouye a personal letter from President Aquino and reiterated an old-standing invitation for him to visit the Philippines.

In his wide-ranging talks with reporters Romulo said the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US needed to be updated to “strengthen even more the relationship between the two countries.”

“Lessons of the past give us the impetus and rational to update the agreement,” he said.

Romulo has been foreign secretary since August 2004. Asked how long he expected to remain in his post he replied: “My future is secure.”

But like all Cabinet members he served at the pleasure of the President, he said and should the time come for him to leave “perhaps I’ll run for the Senate again.”

In a short ribbon-cutting speech at the new consular office of the Philippine embassy Romulo paid tribute to Consul General Domingo Nolasco for his leadership in the smooth transition of the consular office from the main embassy building to what used to be the old chancery at 1617 Massachusetts Avenue.

Romulo congratulated Nolasco on his promotion to ambassadorial rank.

The old chancery has been owned by the Philippine government since the US colonial period and was the headquarters of the government-in-exile during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II.

It fell into disuse in the 1990s when the present embassy at 1600 Massachusetts Avenue was built.

On alert

Bureau of Immigration officer-in-charge Ronaldo Ledesma, meanwhile, said fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is unlikely to arrive and hide in the country but stressed his men are ready to hold him just in case he tries to sneak in.

“As of now, we have not yet received an official notice from the Interpol but we are aware of it because it is already posted in the Internet. I have already directed our personnel to make the necessary precautions that in the event he would come to the Philippines, we have to alert our Interpol counterparts so they can act appropriately,” Ledesma said.

Reports said Interpol had already raised a global alert for the arrest of Assange on rape and molestation charges in Sweden.

Sweden’s International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg issued an arrest warrant on Assange last Nov. 18 on “probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.”

“I doubt it very much because of proximity,” Ledesma said of the likelihood of Assange seeking refuge in the Philippines. “There is bigger chance that he would stay in the United States and Europe. He also knows that if he goes to Asia, there would be people who would be looking for him.” with Evelyn Macairan