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MANILA - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is departing Monday night for a brief visit to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly that seeks to promote a global dialogue on religion, culture and common values.
The President’s first stop is Chicago where she is set to meet with the large Filipino community on Nov. 11 and buoy their spirits amid the US recession.
The Department of Foreign Affairs was silent on whether it was arranging a possible meeting between Ms Arroyo and US President-elect Obama, whom she had tried—but failed—to personally greet since he won Tuesday’s vote.
“We don’t know,” Foreign Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin replied when asked if the DFA was scheduling an Obama-Arroyo meeting, particularly during the Chicago leg of the trip.
Chicago is Obama’s hometown, but the President’s itinerary does not include a meeting with the US president-elect, according to Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.
The President would then fly to New York and join world leaders at the UN Interfaith Conference on the Dialogue of Civilizations on Nov. 12 and 13. The United Nations has sent invitations to 192 member states to the high-level meeting.
Arroyo will deliver a speech on the value of interfaith dialogue and relate the country’s progress from employing such a tack vis-à-vis the secessionist rebels in southern Philippines.
“The interfaith dialogue is what the Philippines has been pursuing on the ground, especially in Mindanao, before it became an international item of interest,” Dureza said.
The meeting is a follow-up to the July interfaith conference in Madrid initiated by Saudi King Abdullah and King Juan Carlos of Spain that gathered delegates of various faiths and religions.
“The Saudi King asked for the presence of the President,” Dureza said, pointing out that this was one of the “obligatory trips” that the President had to make out of an “international commitment.”
The Middle East is host to hundreds of thousands of expatriate Filipino workers, and is helping in the peace process in Mindanao.
The President is set to fly back to Manila on Nov. 13.
The President embarked on a 10-day working visit to the United States in June. She scrapped a second trip set from Sept. 21 to 26 after fighting broke out between government forces and secessionist rebels following the scuttling of a deal expanding the Bangsamoro territory in southern Philippines.
Dureza said Arroyo would probably stay in Chicago for only about an hour to meet with members of the Filipino community.
Soon after Obama’s historic victory over Republican Sen. John McCain was announced by the US media last Tuesday, Arroyo promptly called the triumphant Democrat.
But Malacañang said she failed to catch Obama who was probably still too busy to accommodate calls from world leaders then. It was around 2 a.m. in Chicago when Ms Arroyo placed the call at the State Department.
Arroyo reportedly tried to contact Obama again the following day, but with similar result.
In an interview over dzRB on Sunday, Dureza said he was not aware if Arroyo had finally reached Obama, whom she had also failed to meet during her working visit in the United States last June.
In a text message, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Arroyo was “confident that the incoming presidency of US President-elect Barack Obama usher an "era of enhanced relations between the Philippines and the United States.”
Ermita cited portions of the June 24 letter by Obama to Arroyo in which the new US president “outlined issues and concerns for collaboration … hinged on a ‘partnership that makes progress on 21st century challenges.’”
Such issues included “climate change, food security, poverty reduction, the future of the (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), human rights in Burma, and defense reform.”
Ermita said Obama also noted the two countries’ “shared history and the Philippines’ role as Asia’s first democracy” while highlighting “the Philippines’ special bond with the United States.”
“This bond is enriched by a vibrant and successful Filipino-American community that has made such enormous contributions to our country (the US),” he quoted Obama as writing.
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