Aquino, Obama set to meet in June

President Aquino meets with US President Barack Obama. MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU(file)

LOS ANGELES—President Benigno Aquino III is set to make his first presidential visit to Los Angeles on June 5 and 6.

The Philippine Consulate here has started preparing for the visit as well as that of Vice President Jejomar Binay a few days before, Consul General Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon told the Inquirer  on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

Aragon said the consulate staff would be “very busy the next few weeks” working with the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. and coordinating Mr. Aquino’s meetings with the Filipino-American community and business investors here.

From Los Angeles Aquino will proceed to Washington where he will meet with President Obama.

Binay is scheduled to visit Los Angeles to lead an advance Independence Day celebration on June 2.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr., who met with Fil-Ams here last week, confirmed the meeting between Aquino and President Obama in the White House.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited President Aquino to Washington, D.C. when she visited Manila in November last year. Obama himself extended the invitation later that month during his one-on-one meeting with President Aquino at the East Asia Summit in Indonesia.

Aquino made his first visit to the United States in 2010 for the United Nations General Assembly. He stopped in San Francisco then on his way to New York. He visited the US again for the launch of the Open Government Partnership in September last year and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Hawaii in November.