(2nd update) Arroyo congratulates Obama
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/05/2008 5:00 PM
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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will try to meet US President-elect Barack Obama when she goes to the US next week.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the president is scheduled to attend the United Nations Interfaith Dialogue in New York next week, and she will try to personally meet Obama.
He said the president also immediately tried to reach Obama after his historic victory in the US presidential elections Wednesday (in Manila), but she was not able to talk with him. She also tried to reach Republican Presidential candidate John McCain.
"President Arroyo has put in a call to Obama...The call was registered in the White House operation center," he said. "While President Arroyo has not spoken to them personally, she took the chance to call them by phone."
The Arroyo administration is confident that Philippine-US relations will strengthen under an Obama administration, especially with respect to the Philippine government's desire to see the Veterans Equity Bill passed by the US Congress.
Obama, a senator from Illinois, has agreed to support the passage of the bill, which would assist Filipino war veterans.
Early congratulations
Earlier, Deputy Presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said the Arroyo government is looking forward to "greater cooperation between the USA and the Philippines" especially since "the Democrats have always been good allies."
"We wish to express our profound congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama for his historical and stellar win as the 44th president of the US," Fajardo said.
"His call for change opened a new phase in American politics, sparking hope and inspiration not only for the American people but the citizens of the world," she added.
Fajardo said "America has always been the bastion of democracy and the world has always looked to the USA for direction."
"Obama has promised change and the American people and the world awaits these changes," she said.
Lessons learned from US polls
Meanwhile, Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio said the Arroyo government looks "forward to the flourishing of Philippine-US relations under an Obama administration."
Claudio said expressed hope that "America will find in the outcome of the elections some of the key answers to their most critical problems and anxieties."
"Those answers will probably benefit the rest of the world, too," he told reporters.
Claudio said the Philippines can learn a lot from the US presidential campaign, especially on how issues were well-discussed by the candidates with the electorate.
"As the Philippines moves closer to 2010, our own democracy and electoral process can be enriched by the lessons, models and example that the last US presidential contest can offer, particularly in terms of the primacy of issues and blueprints of governance, as well as the efficiency and integrity by which the electorate's wlll are safeguarded and upheld," he said.
With the election of the first US black president, Claudio said "none can help but be moved by the profound historic impact of how the US presidential election has come to its dramatic end."
"Until a couple of years ago, who would think that what America has achieved through the elctoral ballot would be possible. Suddenly, many things seem possible to change what is wrong in many parts of the world. -- reports from RG Cruz and NADIA TRINIDAD, ABS-CBN News
