GMA rolls out red carpet for Megawati

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will arrive this afternoon for an overnight state visit, the first in her tour of other member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

President Arroyo will also leave tomorrow for Brunei and later Singapore for the next round of her state visits to other ASEAN nations.

Megawati will be met at the airport by Vice President Teofisto Guingona, who is also secretary of foreign affairs, along with other government officials.

Guingona will later escort Megawati to Malacañang, where she will be accorded full military honors at the Palace grounds. If it rains, the ceremonies will be held at the Malacañang Reception Hall.

Mrs. Arroyo told reporters yesterday she will formally thank Megawati for Indonesia’s continuing support for the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

"We will express our appreciation for Indonesia’s support to our peace process and a hope that it will continue under (Megawati’s) leadership," she said.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Mrs. Arroyo was honored that Megawati had chosen the Philippines as the first stop of her ASEAN tour.

"The President is looking forward to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s state visit to the country tomorrow," he said. "She is happy that she will be talking at length with Madame Sukarnoputri, whose late father, Indonesian leader Sukarno was a close friend of her father."

Tiglao said Mrs. Arroyo and Megawati will hold bilateral talks on the proposed reinvigoration of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia Growth area program, which was stalled by the Southeast Asian currency crisis in 1997.

"The two leaders are also expected to compare notes on their poverty-alleviation programs," he said. "Incidentally, both leaders have put as the centerpiece of their governments the reduction of poverty in their respective countries."

Later tonight, Mrs. Arroyo and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo will host a state banquet for Megawati and her official entourage at Malacañang.

Mrs. Arroyo and Megawati will then hold 45-minute bilateral talks, along with their Cabinet members, at the Malacañang State Dining Hall.

The two Presidents will later hold a joint press conference, where they will each give a five-minute statement.

Megawati, who will be accompanied by her husband, Hon. Taufiq Kiemas, and her official party will stay at the Manila Hotel, where state visitors are traditionally billeted.

Both Mrs. Arroyo and Megawati are daughters of former presidents, who were in power in the early 1960s –President Diosdado Macapagal and President Sukarno.

Macapagal and Suharto, along with Malaysian Prime Minister Tungku Abdul Rahman, established the MAPHILINDO (Malaysia-Philippines-Indonesia) regional grouping, forerunner of ASEAN.

Mrs. Arroyo and Megawati also both came to power following the ouster of their predecessors: Joseph Estrada, last January 20 and Abdurrahman Wahid, last month.

Megawati had been to the country with her father in the 1960s and had stayed in Malacañang, according to Tiglao, who was quoting Secretary Paul Dominguez, presidential adviser on regional development.

Dominguez said he got the information from Megawati when he visited Jakarta, Indonesia recently. — Marichu Villanueva