Hectic schedule awaits Aquino in Washington

WASHINGTON – President Aquino normally meets the Filipino masa whenever he goes overseas. But because of his hectic schedule, a meeting with the Filipino community in Washington is unlikely during his three-day working visit starting on Wednesday.

But he will have a chance to meet with Filipinos in Los Angeles on Friday before his return to Manila.

Meetings with President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the US Senate leadership led by Sen. Daniel Inouye, business leaders and investment bankers, interviews with the The Wall Street Journal and the The Washington Post and a side trip to the Quantico Marine base will more than fill up his 48-hour schedule here.

Aquino will meet with Obama at the White House on Friday at 3 p.m. (Saturday 3 a.m. Manila time) after a luncheon to be given in his honor by Clinton at the State Department. 

They know each other from previous encounters at international fora but this will be their first formal meeting at the Oval Office.

The White House said Obama was looking forward to discussing with Aquino the close, strategic and economic ties between the two countries as well as cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Aquino is expected to discuss the West Philippine Sea issue with Obama and give him the latest update on the standoff with China at Panatag (Scarborough) shoal. 

In this connection, he is likely to reaffirm the Philippines’ request for military hardware to bolster its maritime defense force.

Chinese and Philippine vessels have been locked in a standoff over fishing rights at Panatag Shoal since April. Panatag is well within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone and is only 124 nautical miles from Zambales.

Aquino will also likely ask for Obama’s support for the Save Our Industries Act pending in Congress which seeks to allow Philippine-made apparel using US fabrics to enter the United States duty free, thereby creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Philippines.

The Filipino leader is scheduled to arrive in Washington from London on Wednesday.

His plane is expected to touch down at Andrews Air Force base at 6 p.m. From the air base, the President will travel on motorcade directly to his official quarters at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, two miles (3.2 kilometers) from Capitol Hill and the White House.

The following day, he is expected to meet with business leaders and investment executives and sit down for separate interviews with The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Then he will visit the Marine Corps base at Quantico in Virginia, an hour’s drive from Washington DC for a look at its training facilities. The President is expected to be accompanied by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

From Quantico he will proceed to Capitol Hill for a meeting with the Senate leadership and for a reception to be hosted in his honor by Sen. Daniel Inouye, chairman of the powerful Senate appropriations committee and a firm supporter of Philippines advocacies in the US Congress.

Some of the senators he will meet probably still remember his mother Corazon Aquino, who was warmly applauded when she addressed the US Congress as president shortly after the 1986 EDSA Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

While they may not personally know P-Noy, as he is popularly known at home, they do know he comes from good stock. The President’s anti-corruption drive is also well received in official quarters.

On Thursday night Aquino will be the guest of honor at the launching of the United States-Philippine Society formed to create a new mechanism for elevating the Philippines’ profile in the US, Ambassador Jose Cuisia explained.

Organizers expect the society’s $250 (P10,700)-a-plate dinner to be attended by between 250 and 300 people.

The society’s board members include former US ambassador to Manila John Negroponte; Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and former Foreign Affairs secretary Roberto Romulo.