VP leaves for Asean, China visits

Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr. left yesterday for a five-day goodwill visit to three member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before attending the Third Asia-Europe Meeting in Beijing, China.

Guingona will pay his long-delayed "courtesy calls" to his counterparts in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore and other leaders being a new foreign minister.

He is also set to meet with Filipino communities and check the centers for overseas Filipinos in those countries.

The Vice President was in the elections as the campaign manager of the administration’s People Power Coalition.

This is Guingona’s second foreign trip following his visit to Yangon, Myanmar to attend the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat last April 30. — Aurea Calica