Hablamos Español!

If there is any Philippine government official who could now heave a big sigh of relief at the conclusion today of the state visit here of Queen Sofia of Spain, definitely it is not President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Hands down, it would be Albay Governor Joey Salceda who hosted Queen Sofia in his province last Wednesday. Queen Sofia is flying back tonight to Spain at the end of her five-day state visit.

Perhaps, by the grace of Bicol’s patron saint, Our Lady of Peñafrancia, the prayers of Albayanons led by their Governor were answered. Mother Nature cooperated and the sun shone by the time Queen Sofia flew to Albay. She arrived while a low-pressure area unleashed torrents of rain and caused flashfloods last Monday in some parts of Metro Manila.

It was raining hard on Tuesday night when President Aquino hosted at Malacañang Palace a state banquet in honor of Queen Sofia and her delegation of Spanish government officials. Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman acted as the Cabinet-in-attendance for the duration of the Queen’s visit. P-Noy made sure though his Spanish-speaking presidential protocol chief ambassador Miguel Perez Rubio was at hand to also accompany the Queen throughout her stay.

The first trip outside Manila of the 73-year-old Queen was Legazpi City where she was flown via a refurbished presidential F-28 Fokker executive jet. The F-28 had been turned over and added to the 42 other flying assets of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) which incidentally observes its 65th founding anniversary today.

Upon her arrival, the Queen was escorted by Gov. Salceda to the Spanish funded Camalig School and evacuation center. Waving little flags of the Philippines and Spain, schoolchildren in colorful native costumes chanted Viva España to welcome the Queen and her official entourage in their school grounds built out of Spanish aid.

Gov. Salceda then took the Queen to the hospital in Ligao City and the Academy of Climate Change where she met with United Nations representatives and other local government officials in the province. The Academy of Climate Change was granted by Spain 18 million euros (P958 million).

Ambassador Jorge Domecq was particularly excited for the Queen to see the Camalig Central School that was renovated with Spanish funds as an evacuation center that could accommodate as many as 60,000 calamity victims without interrupting classes. The province of Albay is one of the major beneficiaries of Spanish development aid for disaster-mitigation projects channeled through AECID.

Gov. Salceda gave a detailed report of Queen Sofia’s visit while she was in Albay though only for seven hours. This, the Governor did in his Facebook account while escorting the Queen.

He also posted photos of the Queen’s visit. In one of his posts, Salceda wrote:

“Albayanos came out in full force to welcome Queen Sofia of Spain to show their deep gratitude to the Spanish people for the many help extended to Albay especially during the response to Typhoon Durian (Reming). Her visit is also an affirmation of the ‘rightness’ of our overriding commitment to the early achievement of MDGs (Medium Development Goals) through climate change adaptation via health and education, disaster risk reduction and environmental protection.

“During our 7-hour tour of various completed projects in Albay aided by Agencia Espanola de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo (AECID) over the past 5 years, DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman explained to the Queen how the evacuation centers serving as classrooms, and the health facilities helped Albay in achieving the MDGs – maternal deaths, infant mortality, participation rates. The Queen told me and Sec. Dinky that she was ‘greatly impressed by the big strides made by Albay in human development despite the threats of disasters.’

“I summed up the message of the visit as ‘through the help of Spain, Albay achieved early the MDGs despite the disasters. Before leaving for Manila, the Queen also asked me to tell the people of Albay how happy she was in Albay and to thank everyone for one of the ‘warmest and most fantastic’ welcomes she was ever accorded on her foreign visits.’”

Knowing the rainy season here, Spanish ambassador Domecq and his embassy staff have prepared alternative scenario to prevent any bad weather to ruin the Queen’s visit. Although Queen Sofia visited the Philippines four times in the past – either on official or state visits – the ambassador cited, they made sure nothing should stop her from fulfilling her mission in coming here. After all, the ambassador pointed out, this was the longest visit ever made here by Queen Sofia.

Gov. Salceda also shared a “comic moment” he dubbed as “Fun over lunch with the Queen of Spain.” His post:

“The menu for lunch with Queen Sofia of Spain at The Oriental Hotel Legazpi was cleared with the Royal Household, Spanish embassy in the Philippines and Malacañang Protocol Office. A very gracious guest, the Queen was admiring the pumpkin soup, the green salad, the pineapple juice with basil leaves until we came to the main course when she asked about the fish. And the chief protocol officer, Ambassador Miguel Perez Rubio quickly offered the answer — red snapper, or in Filipino — lapu-lapu.

“And Spanish Ambassador Jorge Domecq came in with the remark that it was named after the local chieftain who killed Fernando Magallanes (or Ferdinand Magellan). Everyone suddenly looked at each other (nagkatinginan) and so to break the quizzical looks, I remarked that ‘your majesty is being asked to revenge the Spanish imperial crown by eating Lapu-lapu, the killer of Magellan.’

“But I reassured the Queen not to worry since Fernando Magallanes was actually a Portuguese, Spain’s rival to naval domination. She laughed heartily and Table 1 (Albay Gov, Spain Sec. of State Aldas, Span. Amb. Jorge Domecq, Ph Amb. to Spain Carlos Salinas, Protocol Chief Miguel Perez Rubio, Bishop Lucilo Quiambao and ex-Mayor Jesus Salceda) had their best laughs over this topic.”

Gov. Salceda though failed to say if he was able to practice with Queen Sofia his wide grasp of the Spanish language he learned when it was then a required college subject. The Queen renewed her call for the teaching again of Spanish language in Philippine schools. Hablamos Español!