4 US senators to visit Phl

MANILA, Philippines - More American lawmakers are coming to the Philippines tomorrow for a meeting with President Aquino and other Filipino officials, US Ambassador to Manila Harry Thomas Jr. said Friday.

Thomas told reporters after the traditional vin d’honneur at the Palace that four US senators led by former Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona would be in Manila until Wednesday.

Aside from McCain, the delegation includes Senators Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut), Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) and Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire).

McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, but lost to George W. Bush, who was subsequently elected president.

The senator secured the party nomination in 2008, but lost to Democratic Party candidate then Sen. Barack Obama in the November presidential election.

On Friday night, Thomas accompanied seven members of the US House of Representatives in a meeting with Aquino at Malacañang.

The US lawmakers were Harold Rogers, Norman Dicks, Ander Crenshaw, Tom Cole, Rodney Alexander, Steven LaTourette and Mike Simpson.

The President was accompanied by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, Albay Rep. Al Francisco Bichara, Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya and Bataan Rep. Albert Raymond Garcia.

“The Philippines and the US are made of three parts of government and our senators and congressmen would like to have the opportunity to meet the President and his Cabinet, and their counterparts,” Thomas told reporters.

Thomas said the US government was looking for ways to provide assistance, especially in the areas of maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Aquino is set to visit the US by May or June, Thomas said, and that a formal invitation had been sent to Malacañang.

Earlier, the President expressed hopes that the US would not stop the outsourcing activities of US companies in the Philippines amid reports that this could be a way to give jobs to Americans.

On Wednesday, the President inaugurated the additional facility in Pasay City of ExlService Holdings Inc., a provider of business process outsourcing and transformation services based in New York.

“We have to take it to heart that this is an election year (in the US) and these are election-related statements, but at the end of the day, like any other country, America would want to make their companies more effective, competitive, etc. And outsourcing is one of the keys toward that, then I assume it should continue,” Aquino told reporters after the inauguration.

“Hopefully, it will not change, because that is one of our sunrise industries... I’m made to understand that this was an issue that was brought up during the last elections in America, and from that time, which was four years ago, to now, the situation hasn’t changed. Perhaps there is not that much of a need yet (to lobby for the retention of outsourcing),” he added.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over dzRB yesterday that the visits of the US lawmakers did not have anything to do with the coming US elections.

“It’s more of continuing the ties that we have developed with the United States in the past years,” Valte said. - Aurea Calica