Homecoming

About 50 years ago, a grade school pupil in Xavier School used to be punished for unruly behavior by being ordered to write down words 10 times each on paper, making sure the words were spelled correctly.

“I really have to thank the Jesuits for that,” Robert Wang now recalls with a chuckle. “My spelling is quite good.”

Wang, who was born here, emigrated with his family to the United States in 1964. His father Kwei-sang Wang left a job as editor of The Fookien Times, the newspaper published by Go Puan Seng, whose daughter Betty was the founding chairman of The Philippine STAR. Wang’s mother Ruth Hsiao also wrote a column for Fookien Times for 10 years.

The unruly student became a professor of international relations at Whittier College in California before joining the Foreign Service in 1984.

Today Wang is the senior official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation of the US State Department. He arrived in Manila Sunday night for meetings with Philippine officials on the APEC summit in Beijing in November, and preparations for the next one to be hosted by Manila next year.

“My classmates told me I am the last one they’d think to be a professor,” a grinning Wang told a small group of journalists yesterday at the US embassy.

The United States wants more students in Asia-Pacific to be educated in other countries within the region, with APEC governments providing funding for those from low-income families.

Expanding the number of cross-border students within the region from the current 700,000 yearly average to one million by 2020 is one of the initiatives the United States is pushing at the APEC summits in Beijing and Manila, according to Wang. The 700,000 are mostly students who can afford to pay for their own education, with about 250,000 from China alone studying in the United States.

In line with this, the US started an APEC cross-border scholarship program this year together with Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan (APEC officials call it Chinese Taipei).

The funding will give poor students particularly from developing countries an opportunity to get world-class education in some of the best schools in advanced economies.

Corporate internships for young professionals will be included in the program. American machinery and engine making giant Caterpillar Inc., for example, is prepared to finance doctorate studies for women in mathematics and engineering in US universities.

Such programs, Wang said, can narrow the gap among APEC economies, promote inclusive growth and bring communities within the region closer together.

*      *      *

Women empowerment is another issue that the US is pushing in APEC. The initiative got a boost when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, and the Obama administration continues to give priority to women’s issues.

The US is trying to put together, in time for the APEC summit in Manila, an electronic platform that will provide an “information flow” for all enterprises run by women within the region.

Wang said a study has been conducted on women’s participation in the economy as a whole in APEC states. At the summit this November, indicators may be drawn up to measure levels of women empowerment in APEC economies and where improvements are possible.

Environmental issues are of course also on the APEC agenda, with the US putting emphasis on protecting marine areas and promoting sustainable fishing.

Last June, Secretary of State John Kerry held a conference at their office in Washington, with Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio among the guests, to push programs for ocean cleanup.

Wang said his government is trying to get the Philippines and Indonesia to set an example in this area.

“There’s been rapid growth. That’s a big story in Asia,” Wang said. “But the environment has rapidly deteriorated… a lot of growth has been at the expense of the environment.”

An example, he said, is the “truly serious” pollution problem in China.

“Economic growth itself is not sufficient,” Wang said.

This year the US is trying to persuade the Philippines to volunteer to undergo in 2015 a so-called fossil fuel subsidy peer review, to see whether fuel subsidies provided before oil deregulation worked. In this way, the country can serve as a model for the region, Wang said.

Every year, he said, about $550 billion worth of fossil fuel subsidies are given by governments, but the system is often inefficient. He cited subsidies for diesel that may benefit mass transportation vehicles but also luxury cars such as the Mercedes Benz.

One of the most troubling aspects of keeping prices of fossil fuels artificially low is that this makes prices of cleaner alternative fuels artificially high, Wang noted.

“This system of subsidy makes renewable fuels less competitive,” he said.

In a peer review, experts come in and study existing subsidies, then suggest ways of tweaking the programs to make them reach targeted vulnerable groups. Wang said Peru has undergone a peer review. The US and China will do the same next year, but under a G20 context.

The top US priorities at APEC are supply chain connectivity – which includes decongesting ports  and improving the flow of goods – and fighting cross-border corruption.

Wang, who leaves Manila today, has experienced the heavy traffic in the city and has an idea of the port congestion problem.

It’s only his third visit to his country of birth since leaving in 1964. Last night he was expected to attend a reunion with his sixth grade classmates who later comprised Xavier High School’s batch ’68.

He returned for the first time in 1983, and then in 2009, both times for a vacation. Always, he said, what struck him was being reminded “of the friendliness of the people.”

Someday, Wang hopes to see more of the country: “I’m looking forward to Boracay.”

*      *      *

FAREWELL: He was always fragile, and he stood out in our newsroom for his silence and poor appetite for food. But I thought our workaholic associate editor and friend Tony Paño would have the strength to fight colorectal cancer.

I thought wrong. We saw him try, but it was too late.

Today we bid Tony, our gentle friend, a final goodbye. He is deeply missed.