OFWs eagerly await Aquino's visit to Japan
YOKOHAMA, Japan – Some 300,000 members of the Filipino overseas workers are “super excited” over the visit of President Benigno S. Aquino III here where the Chief Executive is scheduled to meet them.
The President will arrive here on Friday (November 12) following an overnight stay at the Okura Hotel in Tokyo, Japan from Manila.
In an interview, Charge d’ Affaires Belen Anota of the Philippine Embassy in Japan said the members of the Filipino community (Filcom) are all excited to personally see President Aquino for the first time since he assumed office in June 2010.
“Ang Filipino community rito ay excited na excited, gustong-gusto nilang makaniig at makasama ang Presidente. I think it ang unang pagkakataon na makikita ng Filipino community ang Presidente kaya super excited sila,” Anota said
Aside from attending the 18th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting here, the President is scheduled to meet with representatives of the OFWs in Japan at the Yokohama Futaba High School on Sunday (November 14), a day before he leaves Japan for Manila on Monday (November 15).
The Filcom meeting will be highlighted by a concelebrated mass to be led by Most Rev. Raphael Umemur Masahiro, Bishop of the Diocese of Yokohama with Father Oscar Samson, PIME Assistant Pastor of the Sacred Cathedral Parish (Seat of the Diocese) and other Filipino priests from the Archdiocese of Tokyo and Chiba, Yokohama and Urawa.
After the mass, the President will deliver his speech where he is expected to expound further on his administration’s programs and policies as well as the new developments under his administration.
Anota noted that there are about 300,000 members of the Filipino community, mostly women, who are currently residing and working all over Japan. She added that generally, all of them are working in better conditions.
“Some did encounter minor problems in the past but these were eventually resolved,” Anota explained, adding that part of the talks between the President and Japanese Prime Minister during their trip to Hanoi last month was how to improve the working conditions of the Filipino overseas workers in Japan.
Anota further said that President Aquino won by a landslide in Japan during the last May 2010 elections.
She also stressed that while most of the OFWs work as entertainers for the past decade, the composition of OFWs working in the entire Japan now has changed. From entertainers, Anota said, the OFWs now include highly skilled workers such as engineers, architects, and teachers, among others. (PCOO)
Aquino calls for concerted action to cope with regional currency volatility
TOKYO, Japan - As growth prospects in emerging markets are expected to get much better, President Benigno S. Aquino III will call for a concerted action among member economies in the Asia-Pacific region to ensure less volatility in the regional currency markets.
The President, in an interview on arrival at the Okura Hotel here at 8pm Thursday from Narita Airport, said this is what the Philippines and other APEC economies will highlight during the 18th Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting slated November 12-14 in Yokohama.
“We will be focusing on the volatility of the currencies and underscore that concerted action be generally accepted,” the Chief Executive said, adding that there is need to ensure there is less volatility in the markets.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, who is accompanying the President during the APEC meet, said that more developed economies are currently growing slower resulting to an accelerated flow of currencies to the emerging markets.
Purisima said we cannot stop fluctuations in currencies from occurring as a result of these inflows from developed economies but “we can only smoothen it by creating interventions, if necessary, if it becomes too volatile.”
Purisima said emerging markets will have to further develop their respective domestic markets and not just focus solely on exports.
“In the Philippines, our plan is to channel the flow of dollars into public-private partnerships in infrastructure and that is why we are launching that program next week. And we believe this is an opportunity for the Philippines to reduce the infrastructure gap and improve our productivity,” said Purisima. “It is a rare opportunity and we will take advantage of it.”
The government, in cooperation with the private sector, will hold an infrastructure forum from November 17-19 to launch the President’s major infrastructure drive which aims to examine investment opportunities, profiles of public-private partnership projects in the country, as well as policy, regulatory, and legal concerns in developing the infrastructure sector in the country.
Last Sept. 9, the President signed Executive Order No. 8 reorganizing and renaming the Build-Operate and Transfer Center into the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines, to fast-track the implementation of such programs and projects with the end view of channeling its gains into essential social services, such as those in education, health, and other poverty alleviation programs. (PCOO)
PAL row mediation promising, says Aquino
TOKYO, Japan - President Benigno S. Aquino III said there are promising signs that management and employees of Philippines Air Lines (PAL) could still settle their differences through a negotiated settlement.
In an interview at the Okura Hotel after arriving here Thursday, the President said he has already conducted meetings with representatives of the labor sector and PAL management so as not to inconvenience the public in case PAL employees proceed with their planned strike next week.
“One of the last meetings I had this week was to talk to several individuals to include representatives from the labor sector and PAL management. So we are trying to get them closer to a negotiated settlement and ease the fears of both parties,” he said.
The President said the meeting took place before the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) filed last Nov. 5 a strike notice with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
PALEA said the move came after DOLE Secretary Baldoz issued an order allowing PAL to retrench 2,600 PAL employees. During their meeting, the president said they have yet to receive PALEA’s appeal for a review of the decision of DOLE.
The President, who is here to attend the 18th Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) Summit said meetings between the two groups are continuing to settle the issue.
“We are trying to be a bridge. So far there are many promising signs,” he said. (PCOO)
Aquino exhorts APEC to speed up creation of single Free Trade Area
YOKOHAMA, Japan - President Benigno S. Aquino III called on the 21 member economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to speed up the creation of a single Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) by building on the existing ASEAN regional integration plan.
The Chief Executive echoed the call in his speech during the APEC CEO Summit 2010 Yokohama on Friday (November 12) at the Royal Park Hotel here.
“We can view the different APEC economies as individual building blocks, which need to be assembled to create a single Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific. But with the Free Trade Agreements already in place such as ASEAN Plus Three, ASEAN Plus Six and the Trans Pacific Partnership, we can see that some of these individual building blocks have already been assembled into larger structures,” he said.
The President stressed that it would be more practical to add on to these groupings instead of assembling the individual building blocks from scratch.
“If we proceed, in this manner, and add to what is already in place within APEC economies, there would be no need to start from scratch to build a free trade area,” he said.
The President acknowledged that challenges still remain before the realization of these ideas but “if we build upon the gains in the past decade, then the vision of a free trade area in the Asia Pacific can be achieved sooner rather than later.”
According to the President, Regional Economic Integration has always been the goal of APEC, with the “Bogor Goals” of free and open trade and investments for developed economies by 2010 and developing countries by 2020.
“Tremendous gains have been achieved in the past decade, but there is still much work ahead,” he added.
The President, however, said that integration would require internal adjustments, especially for developing economies.
“As economies open up, there will be winners and losers, at least in the short term. The risks and the downsides must be anticipated and managed. Capacities must be built,” the President said.
More importantly, he added, economic integration should be used to narrow economic disparities among member economies and make growth sustainable and more inclusive.
The President cited the Philippines as a beneficiary from the more open environment for trade and investments.
“Economic growth is expected to exceed the initial 6.2 percent projection, and continue next year. Our stock market has been the best performing in Asia this year, and our recent local currency global bond offering, totaling the equivalent of one billion US dollars, was 13 times oversubscribed,” he stressed. (PCOO)
