WASHINGTON D.C. - The meeting has been in the works even before President Obama was sworn into office last February, but what he and President Arroyo will talk about when they meet next week is still up in the air.

“The preparations are continuing, it’s just a matter of setting the time for the meeting,” Ambassador Willy Gaa revealed.

He said the meeting will take place in the Oval Office and will last 45 minutes.

All other details are still being discussed, Gaa admitted, exactly a week before the scheduled meeting.

The White House announcement earlier this month merely stated the Arroyo-Obama meeting would be an "opportunity to discuss ways to enhance US-Philippine cooperation on critical global issues."

President Arroyo is scheduled to arrive in the American capital late Wednesday evening (July 29), just days after her last State of the Nation Address in Manila .

She flies to New York on Friday (July 31) to attend a meeting on climate change.

Philippine embassy officials want to pack her itinerary in DC, but are stymied by the absence of a definite schedule from the White House, obviously the centerpiece of President Arroyo’s visit to the capital.

They are trying to arrange meetings with State Secretary Hillary Clinton, officials involved in the Coral Triangle Initiative, members of the Philippine Caucus – a bipartisan, bicameral group of about 80 lawmakers sympathetic to Philippine concerns on Capitol Hill, and a smaller meeting with key congressmen. 

Significant visit

Gaa couldn’t help point out the significance in the timing of President Obama’s invitation.

He is in the thick of the most serious political battle of his six-month-old administration.

The American chief executive is pushing Congress to enact healthcare reform. Though his deadline for lawmakers to produce a final version before they go on recess in early August may now be beyond reach, he is expected to keep the pressure up next week. 

In the past, American presidents tend to invite their Filipino counterparts to the White House early in their administration, not when they are about to end their term. President Arroyo has only 11 months left in her term.

And as the White House pointed out, President Arroyo is the first Southeast Asian head of state invited to Washington DC .

“The Obama administration is giving major importance to Southeast Asia. This is proof America is serious about its commitments to Southeast Asia by inviting a very strong and very loyal ally of America in the region,” Gaa told ABS-CBN’s Balitang America .

In the works since 2008

President Arroyo has been trying to hold a face-to-face meeting since last year.

During a 10-day working visit in June 2008, she attempted to meet with both Obama and Senator John McCain when they were in the heat of the presidential campaign.

The President appeared to tarry in Washington DC as aides worked to arrange the meetings – drawing criticism back home because the country was being ravaged by Typhoon Fengshen.

She was able to get the meeting with McCain but settled for a phone call from Obama.

Last February, she suddenly made a side trip to the American capital after a trip to Bahrain to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, one of the earliest official engagements of the newly inaugurated President Obama.

That opportunity fizzled out as well.

“Let’s just say that this meeting is the desire of both nations,” Gaa stressed.

“This visit has been in the works for a long time, so this meeting has been discussed by both sides,” he added.

Perhaps because Mrs. Arroyo is the second longest serving Philippine President, next only to ousted dictator President Ferdinand Marcos, she has the distinction of being a White House guest of two different US presidents.

Then US President George W. Bush invited President Arroyo to a state visit in May 2003.

She was feted as a comrade in America ’s war on terror, and the Philippines was elevated to the status of a “major non-NATO ally,” giving the military greater access to American military equipment and supplies.

It also allowed the US to deploy Special Forces in “temporary” Mindanao camps, where, six years later, they remain.

But the ties soured a year later when Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz was kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents, demanding the Philippines pull back its troops.

President Arroyo ordered the troops home, despite silent opposition from US officials. They saw the move as capitulating to a terror threat.

Blood on her hands

Human rights lawyer Arnedo Valera believes next week’s visit will very different from the one President Arroyo enjoyed in 2003.

Valera is the US lawyer of Los Angeles-based Fil-Am artist Melissa Roxas, who has accused the Philippine military of abducting and torturing her.

“President Arroyo is coming to Washington with blood on her hands, with a trail of cases of corruption, plunder and election fraud,” he told ABS-CBN’s Balitang America .

He said it’s important to look at President Obama’s agenda for inviting the Philippine president here.

“I think the reason of President Obama is not only to discuss the substantive aspects of RP-US relations but also to catch President Arroyo’s attention about what’s happening in the Philippines,” Valera said

Valera had earlier sent the White House and State Department a complaint on behalf of Roxas, who is an American citizen.

Philippine officials, including top military officials, have cast doubts on Roxas’ allegations.

Notwithstanding their denials, the Roxas case has piqued the attention of some US lawmakers, already wary of the Philippine human rights record following a rare Senate hearing two years ago, that looked into the problem of unsolved extra-judicial killings of over 800 churchmen, union leaders, peasant organizers and journalists.

Valera indicated some US solons are contemplating another congressional hearing to look into the Roxas case.

Ambassador Gaa stressed the government was already addressing the human rights problem in the country.

“There’s been an 80-90 percent reduction in extra-judicial killings in the Philippines. President Arroyo is fully prepared to answer if anyone should ask about human rights in the Philippines,” he said.

Gaa added there is already a whole host of other concerns in the possible talking points of the two leaders.

He said that could cover lingering threats in the region, including recent bombings in Jakarta and how to approach Myanmar issues.

“First and foremost, she will thank President Obama for signing the veterans benefits contained in the stimulus bill, and she will also lay out her position in the current financial crisis and how our two countries can help each,” the Gaa revealed.

Expanding trade

President Arroyo could use the meeting with President Obama to solicit his support for a bill that provides a much needed boost to the Philippine’s garments industry, which directly or indirectly employs about a million people.

Gaa said they’ve scheduled meetings between the President and Congressmen Jim McDermott of Washington and Charles Rangel of New York .

Rangel is chairman of the House ways and means committee, which is charged with tax revenue legislation, economic policy and international trade, among others.

McDermott is the principal author of House Resolution 3039 that was filed last June 25.

The proposed bill aims to exempt from tariff certain types of apparel “assembled” in the Philippines using US-made textiles.

The measure provides for three classes of duty preference for apparel made in the Philippines, each class enjoying certain levels of duty preference from full tariff exemption to reduced rate of duty.

The products range from shirts and dresses to underwear to swimwear.

Gaa said the deal could be worth as much as $1 billion, and fuel the continued growth of the heavily export-dependent Philippine garments sector.

So, while the agenda is being firmed up a week left before they finally come face to face, the Philippines’ chief envoy here predicted, “the whole range of discussions will probably evolve during the meeting itself of the two leaders.”