Philippines president to make stop in Hawai'i
| • | Philippines heightens security after bus bombing |
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Many Hawai'i residents of Filipino ancestry, whether U.S. citizens or not, feel a strong bond with "the old country." Community leaders say that bond can only be cemented further with the planned visit Thursday by Philippines president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
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"We are thirsting for first-hand information on what's going on in the country — on the economic front, the political front," said Richard Pecson, a financial planner active with the civil rights advocacy group Filipino Coalition for Solidarity. "We are a very close-knit, family-oriented people. Every once in a while when we have a visit from the president, we are excited."
Final arrangements are being made for Philippines president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's one-day visit here.
Some observers see dark clouds hanging over Arroyo's trip to Hawai'i and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit in Mexico. Against the background of ongoing economic woes and political insurgency, a security crisis flared on Friday with the al-Qaida-linked bombing in Quezon City, making this a particularly bad week for Arroyo to leave Manila.
"They are sending (the president) a message, putting her in an awkward position," said Belinda Aquino, director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. "If she cancels her trip, she'll get flak because in effect she has shown that she is intimidated by the threat. If she leaves in spite of the escalating violence, she'll still get flak because she will be criticized for not showing enough concern about the crisis by leaving."
So far, Arroyo's visit seems on track, said Philippine consul general Rolando Gregorio, whose staff is working furiously to make final arrangements for her whirlwind, one-day visit. Her activities here will culminate in a tour of the new Filipino Community Center in Waipahu and a dinner in Waikiki.
• Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, will arrive on Philippine Airlines at 7:45 a.m. They will be greeted by Gov. Ben Cayetano and first lady Vicky Cayetano; Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of U.S. Pacific Command, and his wife, Sarah; and Alberto DelRosario, Philippine ambassador to the United States. • Arroyo will receive visitors in her Hilton Hawaiian Village suite, including Fargo and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye. • The governor and first lady will host the Arroyos at a private luncheon at Washington Place, to be followed by a news conference. • Arroyo will meet with invited community groups on a tour of the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu at 3 p.m. • A public banquet in Arroyo's honor will end her visit. The 7 p.m. dinner at the Hilton's Tapa Ballroom costs $50 per seat. Information: 595-6316.
The community center, the largest private facility dedicated to Filipino culture outside the Philippines, is counting on her visit as the fulfillment of a pledge, said Eddie Flores, who traveled to Manila in February with Roland Casamina, a fellow backer of the center.
Highlights of Arroyo's visit
"We wanted her to come to the opening of the center in June, but she couldn't leave at that time," Flores said. "She promised us she would come by to visit us on her way to Mexico."
They're hoping that the importance of the economic conference and maintaining ties in Hawai'i will bring Arroyo as scheduled on Thursday. While here, she plans to meet with Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander-in-chief of U.S. military forces in the Pacific. Military links are important to the Philippines now, Aquino said,
"There's already a plan to repeat the Balikatan (joint) military exercises, held six months ago," she said.
Arroyo, who rose from vice president 18 months ago after the ouster of President Joseph Estrada, is still enjoying something of a honeymoon in the nation's top executive office. Arroyo, who holds a doctorate in economics, is seen by Filipinos in Hawai'i and elsewhere as both honest and qualified, Gregorio said.
"She does enjoy a great popularity. She's the daughter of a former president (Diosdedo Macapagal), and she has experience — she has been senator and vice president — and she has education," he said.
"Coming in the wake of Estrada, who was a total, unmitigated disaster, she looks very good," Aquino added. "I'm normally very critical, but the fact that she's just been there 18 months is something we should all understand. Some of the problems she's struggling with are structural.
"It's one of the most ungovernable countries in the world. I'm really amazed it's still there."
Filipinos comprise the largest immigrant group in Hawai'i, with about 4,000 arriving here annually, said Dean Alegado, who chairs the UH ethnic studies department. As a result, the proportion of the Filipino community with intimate ties to the homeland is increasing.
The Internet and cable TV Filipino programming help keep those ties strong. And the regionalism that used to divide Filipino expatriate groups into provincial clans is less evident today, said Alegado, who also teaches a UH course on the Filipino-American experience.
"The more recent immigrants are less regionalistic," he said. "That pretty much ended with fall of Marcos. The collective experience of being under martial law brought people together."
Additionally, there are initiatives in the Philippines to allow dual citizenship for its expatriates as well as absentee voting rights for its citizens who live abroad, said Rose Churma, a former official of the community center.
Arroyo's time here is seen as an opportunity for ceremony — she will meet with Filipino student groups at the center, and will receive a formal thank-you from the Filipino-American Veterans of World War II, a group she has helped in its campaign to secure full benefits for the veterans.
The Filipino community is a patchwork quilt of varying political and social viewpoints, but most of its leaders believe differences will be set aside while Arroyo is here.
"Just like in any healthy group, we have our disagreements, but on an occasion like this we always gather together and forget all other concerns," Pecson said. "It's one where we can demonstrate the very fabric of the culture we come from."
