President Benigno Aquino lll. AP Photo/Bullit Marquez
MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III will discuss his main agenda as President of the Philippines—good governance and his anti-corruption drive—when he goes on an official visit to the United States next week.
The Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday gave details of the President’s visit to New York and Washington D..C. from September 18 to 22, which officials said will not include a business representative.
At a Palace briefing on Mr. Aquino’s US trip, Assistant Foreign Secretary Patricia Paez said the President will attend the official launch on September 20 in New York City of the Open Government Partnership (OPG) upon the invitation of US President Barrack Obama and Brazil President Dilma Rouseff, co-chairs of the new multilateral initiative to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
Paez said the Philippines was one of only eight countries—and only two in Asia—to become members of the Steering Committee of the OGP.
“The selection of the Philippines as a Steering Committee member is an international acknowledgement of the Aquino administration’s demonstrated commitment to innovative practices in open governance and anti-corruption,” Paez said.
She said the country became a member of the steering committee because it met the criteria set by the body, which included engagement in governance and fiscal transparency, among others.
Mr. Aquino will deliver the keynote remarks at the OPG forum titled “The Power of Open Governance: A Global Discussion,” and according to Paez, the President “is the only head of state invited to address the opening ceremony” of the conference.
Mr. Aquino will also speak before the Asia Society, a body founded by John Rockefeller to promote greater knowledge in Asia, and which Paez said “resonates both on a personal level for the President and on a historical level for the Filipino people.”
This was so, officials said, because President Aquino’s late father, former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., spoke before the body in August 1980 and delivered his famous line, “the Filipino is worth dying for.” The President’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, also spoke before the same body in 1986.
On September 21, President Aquino is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the IBM Centennial Forum called “Think: A Forum on the Future of Leadership.”
The New York visit will also see the Fordham University conferring an honorary doctor of laws degree on the Filipino President. Mr. Aquino will also have a chance to meet with high-level business executives belonging to the US-Asean Business Council, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce.
In Washington DC, Mr. Aquino will deliver a lecture during the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Annual Meetings upon the invitation of World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick.
Paez said Zoellick had written President Aquino to say that “we are inspired by the Philippines’ experience of people power and your administration’s platform of good governance and poverty reduction.”
President Aquino will wind up his Washington visit by meeting with US Sen. Daniel Inouye, president pro tempore of the US Senate and chair of the appropriations committee, to thank him for his support of Philippine causes in the US Congress, as well as meeting with the Filipino community in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.