Palace gives up on Bush’s RP visit

Malacañang has given up trying to get US President George W. Bush to visit the country this month.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said they have received word from the US State Department that Bush’s schedule in Asia would not allow him even a brief stopover here.

Tiglao said US Secretary of State Colin Powell told President Arroyo that Bush’s Asian tour next week is so tight he could not visit the Philippines even for a day.

"Powell was very apologetic and he explained that the trip of Mr. Bush to Japan, China and Korea was very, very tight," Tiglao said.

Bush will be in Asia for five days next week. He will visit Japan on Feb. 17 to 18, South Korea on Feb. 19 to 20 and China on Feb. 21.

An official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had said Malacañang was burning the lines to have Manila included in Bush’s itinerary in a bid to boost the country’s image before the international community.

The official said Malacañang was hoping that since China would be the last stop of Bush’s Asian tour, he could be asked to drop by the Philippines even for just a few hours.

"Beijing is just a few hours from Manila anyway," one DFA official said.

The Philippines’ invitation to Bush was anchored on the fact that Mrs. Arroyo was among the first to condemn the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington.

Mrs. Arroyo also was among the first to offer the country’s air and sea ports to US planes and warships on their way to Afghanistan in October.

The DFA official said the President also felt she has taken a lot of political flak for the joint RP-US military exercises which the Western media had labeled the as "America’s second front" against terrorism.

"A visit of President Bush would be timely since the actual war games, which allow US military advisers to observe local combat operations, would have started by then," the official said.

Philippine-US relations have warmed significantly under the Arroyo and Bush administrations after cooling down for several years since Manila shut down US military bases in the country in 1992.

Their ties have also improved after Manila ratified the Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999 allowing limited access for US forces to train on Philippine soil.