Arroyo to congratulate Aussie PM in due time, says Bunye

President Arroyo will send her congratulations "in due time" to re-elected Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has chided the Chief Executive for pulling out Filipino troops from Iraq last July, Malacañang said yesterday.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the Philippines and Australia may disagree on certain policy matters, but that the two countries remain allies in the war against terrorism.

"I’m sure in due time the President will be sending her congratulatory message to Prime Minister Howard," he told reporters.

Bunye said the strained relations between the Philippines and Australia — like those with the United States — would be healed by time.

"The ties between our two countries remain strong," he said.

"We consider Australia as an ally in the fight against terrorism, and we’re willing to cooperate with our regional neighbors in order to fight this terrorist threat," Bunye added.

Mrs. Arroyo and Howard would be able to meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference Leaders’ summit in Chile next month.

The strain in Philippine-Australian relations reached a point that then Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert had to summon Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce to protest Howard’s public criticism of Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to withdraw the 51-member Philippine contingent from Iraq to save Filipino hostage Angelo de la Cruz.

Howard was in Manila on July 14, 2003 when confessed Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi escaped from jail at the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame, Quezon City. — Marichu Villanueva