MANILA - Filipino-Americans are hungry for good news from the Philippines to make them feel good, a report of the Philippine mission to the United Nations in New York said.
"We are tired of the negative news, like the political circus in the guise of congressional investigations We now realize that the Philippines is doing quite well in the face of the global crisis because the government is firmly focused on strengthening the economy," the report said, quoting Crisanto Reyes, an accountant based in Santa Clara, California.
Reyes was among a group of leaders of the Filipino-American community in the US who attended a dialogue in San Francisco this week with a team of visiting Philippine officials.
The dialogue -- also held in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles -- was meant to update Filipino-Americans on the various measures being undertaken to cushion the impact of the global recession.
The team was led by Edgardo Pamintuan, presidential adviser on external affairs and chair of the Subic+AC0-Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC). It included Alexander Cauguiran, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Clark International Airport Corp. and Undersecretary Danilo de Austria Consumido and Leonardo Kirk Galanza of the Office of the President.
"We thought we would be faced with disbelief and confronted with hard questions, but we were pleasantly surprised that our kababayan [compatriots] here would rather hear the positive developments in the Philippines. Our team was ready to clarify even the negative news, but no one raised them," the report quoted Pamintuan.
Paul Relos, a San Francisco-based dentist, said they would welcome similar dialogues with Philippine officials, "because it makes us feel good."
The team discussed the massive infrastructure program being undertaken in the Luzon Urban Beltway (LUB) super region and the development of the former US military bases in Clark and Subic into economic zones and logistics hubs.
The LUB is made up of the industrial and commercial areas of Central Luzon, Metro Manila and Southern Tagalog. It is one of five super-regions into which the country was organized by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to hasten development using the resources and potentials of each area.
Verne del Rosario, a real estate businessman who grew up near Clark but has been away for the past 19 years, was elated to learn that the former base was now a thriving economic zone, employing almost 60,000.
"I remember that our neighborhood used to rely on the bases, but only for menial jobs and a few scraps and trading of surplus PX goods from the American soldiers. I am happy to know we have good quality jobs there now," he said.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
| Comments |
|
3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
