Next stop: Germany, Spain, Vatican, US

President Arroyo is planning to undertake in a single swing her scheduled state visits this year to the Vatican, Germany and Spain, with the United States as the last stop of her journey, Palace sources told The STAR yesterday.

Palace officials who asked not to be named said they have begun preparations for the President’s first three state visits, setting them for the last week of March, and tentatively set her state visit to the US for April 1 or 2.

The President canceled her scheduled state visits to the Vatican, Germany and Spain in September last year due to the swelling budget deficit and other problems besetting the country.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said the state visit of Mrs. Arroyo to the United States this April is expected to result in the restoration of a $30-million financial assistance the US earlier pledged to the Philippines.

The amount was scuppered in the omnibus veto of American global anti-terror fund aid last year by US President George W. Bush.

Ople said on the "Mr. Expose" radio program of former senator Ernesto Maceda that the invitation to make a state visit to Washington was extended to Mrs. Arroyo as an expression of great interest by the Bush administration in highlighting the fact that the Philippines is a staunch ally of the US in its global war on terrorism.

"As far as I know, the Americans, especially President George Bush, want to show their interest in the Philippines as its ally in the war against terrorism," Ople said.

Maceda, who served as ambassador to Washington during the term of ousted President Joseph Estrada, asked Ople if the US government has already delivered the financial assistance packages it promised and $1 billion worth of "aid promises" made by Bush to Mrs. Arroyo during the latter’s first official visit to the White House in 2001.

"I think, because of the good relations of the two countries, especially after President Arroyo was invited for (a) state visit, I believe there would be a new accounting of (US assistance commitments to the Philippines) and the $30 million vetoed by Bush would be given back to us," Ople said.

He also confirmed that two top Bush administration officials are scheduled to meet with the President after she arrives in Manila from her trip to Kuwait.

Ople quoted Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye as saying the two ranking US government officials will brief Mrs. Arroyo on the US plans for Iraq and the Middle East.

While Ople failed to name the two US government officials due to arrive, The STAR earlier identified them s as US National Security Council official Karen Brooks and Mary Thigh of the US Defense Department.

In a teleconference from Kuwait, Bunye reiterated the President’s official statement that the Philippines will wait for the United Nations Security Council to issue its resolution on the US request to launch military strikes against Iraq for the latter’s refusal to disarm its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"Before the President left Manila, she already (said), in case conflict starts, she would convene the National Security Council," to confer on the best position for the country to take in case war does break out in the Middle East, Bunye said.

Bunye, however, refused to comment on the reported survey that 70 percent of Filipinos want the Philippines to remain neutral if war erupts between the US and Iraq.

Over the air, Maceda aired concerns that the President’s sudden trip to Kuwait could be seen as a tacit expression of support for the proposed US-led military strike on Iraq — with or without the UN sanction.

Ople took strong exception to Maceda’s observations and said Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to fly to Kuwait Sunday was made to inform Filipino workers based there about the government’s contingency plans should war erupt in the Middle East.

"There is no official request yet by the American government" for any military or humanitarian support from the Philippines, Ople added.

The President flew to Kuwait Sunday and returns today in order to personally check on the welfare of Filipino workers in Kuwait and the rest of the Middle East, where some 1.4 million of them are deployed.

"In fact, I have long suggested to President Arroyo to make these visits to the Middle East, to show our Philippine flag there and I have ordered our Philippine ambassadors in the region to report to her in a command conference to review the final plans for the safety and welfare of our OFWs in the Middle East," Ople said. — Marichu Villanueva