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TMCNet: Aquino gets Obama invite: US Embassy suggests two business trips

[June 11, 2010]

Aquino gets Obama invite: US Embassy suggests two business trips

Jun 11, 2010 (The Manila Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- President-elect Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino 3rd has been extended a virtual invitation by US President Barack Obama to visit the United States at a "mutually convenient" time. The invitation was made through a phone call from Obama to Aquino on Wednesday night when the US president personally congratulated the senator for winning the race to Malacanang in the recently concluded May 10 automated elections.


During a press conference on Thursday, Aquino confirmed that Obama did call just hours after he was proclaimed by Congress as the new president of the Philippines.

The president-elect said he had "a pleasant conversation" with Obama, who, he said, seemed "very sincere in his words of fostering stronger relationships" with the Philippines.

"We had very strong relationships. He has personal close friendships with the Filipino community in America, one of the biggest immigrant groups, the usual. I thanked him, I told him I had a very pleasant meeting with the ambassador he nominated, we can work very well with him, he was pleased with that," Aquino added, referring to Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr.

When asked if he was invited by Obama to visit the US, the president-elect said, "I [am trying] to recall. It was something like [that he told me to make the trip at] the appropriate time when [I am] ready." According to Aquino, he was also invited by Thomas to visit the US during the ambassador's call on him in his house in Quezon City even before official canvassing of votes was finished by Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers.

"We will set up meetings with business leaders in America in several areas so much so that [Ambassador Thomas] said that perhaps we cannot handle it in one trip, he was suggesting two trips," he said.

"I answered, 'Mr. Ambassador, we have a lot of concerns here, we want to make sure we are on the road to solving them before I embark on anything,'" Aquino added.

Smoking issue He said he and Obama briefly talked about the issue of smoking, one habit that he shares with the US president.

"At some point, I attempted some humor, I said, 'Mr. President, I understand we have the same issue with smoking.' He said, 'Well, I quit that already. I quit, it's your sole problem but I'm ready to offer advice,'" Aquino added.

When also asked what was the advice offered to him by the US president, he quoted Obama as saying, "'At the time that you decide to quit, I'll send the advice.'" The call, Aquino said, lasted almost 15 to 20 minutes, longer than his telephone conversation with President Gloria Arroyo.

Aquino, the only son of late former President Corazon "Cory" Aquino and late former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was proclaimed on Wednesday as the country's 15th president.

Also on Thursday, the president-elect met with Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith at his residence on Times Street in West Triangle, Quezon City.

Smith said that his conversation with Aquino highlighted the "very positive and strong relationship" between Australia and the Philippines.

He congratulated him on his victory and the people as well for an "impressive transition." "We talked in some detail about areas of cooperation we enjoy now and I assured the president-elect that Australia stands ready to continue to work with the Philippines to assist its efforts in meeting its development challenges and challenges in many other areas as we had done in the past," the ambassador said.

Aquino said that they also discussed the current situation of Filipinos in Australia as well as the peace process in Mindanao and the assistance that Australia has been extending to the Philippines.

"We seek ways to find more avenues for better, closer and stronger relations with Australia. We have many common problems with them, global climate change would be one of them, transnational crimes would be another," the president-elect added.

Increased trade "And the complementary nature of products each country has to offer, it also forms the basis for increased trade potential, which goes hand in hand with our first plan, which is job generation," Aquino said.

Smith noted that Australia has an extensive development cooperation program with the Philippines.

"We do a lot of work in education field, for example, and much of that goes to the benefit of kids in Mindanao [in southern Philippines], whose access to quality education we are trying to improve and that's very much the priority of the incoming Aquino administration," he said.

Smith added that Australia is also looking forward to work with the Aquino administration to improve the Philippines' disaster-prevention and risk-management programs.

"We know that the Philippines is a country vulnerable to extreme weather events and we look forward to working with the new administration to improve the capability of the Philippines to withstand these," he said.

President Arroyo made a "quick" call also on Wednesday to Aquino to congratulate her successor.

Phone conversation Aquino said that his telephone conversation with the President, who was elected congresswoman of the Second District of her home province of Pampanga, took place shortly after he talked with Obama.

"It was a quick phone conversation,'" he told a press conference after his meeting with Smith.

"'Congratulations, Mr. President' [I think that's what she said] and 'I'm hoping for your success,'" the president-elect said when asked what Mrs. Arroyo told him. "She was hoping for my success, so I said, 'Thank You.'" Aquino, a former economics student of the President and a staunch critic of the current administration, admitted that he felt "awkward" while talking to Mrs. Arroyo.

"Of course, I had to give her the courtesies. She is the current president, she is older than me, she is a woman. I would be doing injustice to my parents if I would not be not treating her properly," he said.

Aquino had vowed that his administration would go after and would put closure to all the issues that rocked the Arroyo administration, among them the alleged 2004 poll fraud and the alleged P728-million fertilizer fund scam and the aborted national broadband network project.

Meanwhile, he said that even if he was invited by Malacanang to attend the celebration of Independence Day on June 12, he probably would not be able to do so.

"On June 12 itself, I already committed myself to act as godfather to a partymate [in the Liberal Party] who is getting married," the president-elect added.

In a White House statement, Obama also on Wednesday described the May 10 automated elections as "a model of transparency and positive testament to the strength and vitality of democracy in the Philippines." Historic ties He "noted the deep historic and people-to-people ties between the United States and the Philippines and our strong cooperation on security and economic issues in the Asia Pacific region and globally," the statement said.

"The Philippines is a long time ally and close friend of the United States," it added.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also congratulated Aquino, saying that the "successful elections exemplified the vitality of the country's democratic institutions and should be a point of pride for Filipinos everywhere." She added that "the Filipino people now look to President-elect Aquino to carry forward the democratic traditions that his parents did so much to champion." Congratulatory messages were also sent to Aquino by Chinese President Hu Jintao and to Vice President-elect Jejomar Binay by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan also congratulated Aquino on Wednesday.

With reports by AFP and James Konstantin Galvez To see more of The Manila Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.manilatimes.net. Copyright (c) 2010, The Manila Times, Philippines Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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