JEDDAH, 21 July 2003 — President Arroyo is planning to visit the Kingdom in the 3rd week of September, the president’s special envoy to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has said.
Ambassador Amable R. Aguiluz V made the announcement during a meeting with representatives of various community groups in Jeddah at the Philippine Consulate on Saturday evening.
Aguiluz did not give details of the visit, saying only that President Arroyo has not forgotten “the effort and support of the OFWs in the economic growth of our country through their dollar remittances.”
“The president emphasized that her priorities is to help OFWs who are really in need of immediate help from her government so that they can continuously work and support their families back home,” he said.
Aguiluz said he came to the Kingdom to seek support for the Philippines’ bid for a permanent observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
“Aside from their (Saudi government’s) support they had promised also to ask the support of other member countries of the OIC to get their votes of support so that the Arroyo government will fully get the permanent observance status in the OIC,’ he said.
Aguiluz said he had also personally delivered an invitation from President Arroyo to Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to pay a visit to the Philippines.
He said he had also discussed the problem in the southern Philipines with Saudi officials, and asked Saudi Arabia’s help for the Philippine government’s efforts to ease the conflict. “If there is no more conflict in Mindanao, many investors would come to the Philippines,” he told the community leaders.
Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the biggest Muslim separatist group in the Philippines, are set to resume stalled peace talks, with OIC member Malaysia as the mediator and head of a cease-fire monitoring group.
As special envoy to the GCC, Aguiluz said his main mission right now is the expansion of the Philippines trade and economic relations with the council’s member countries, which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
During the dialogue hosted by Consul General Kadatuan P. Usop, Kasapi Congress secretary-general Rudy Dianalan asked what the ambassador could do with the community’s “long-overdue” request for a Filipino Center in Jeddah.
The community had submitted the plan to Manila long ago and it had been presented to various officials from Manila who had come to Jeddah but nothing had happened.
Aguiluz said he was willing to support the project. He did not elaborate.
Aguiluz’s entourage included Reynaldo Catapang, executive director of the Department of Foreign Affairs’s Office of Personnel and Administrative Services; Omar Pangarungan, director of the DFA’s Office of Middle East and African Affairs (OMEA); Sarge Colambo, the ambassador chief of staff; and Dante Solivan, special assistant to the ambassador.