Benign partner

PERTH — The Philippines’ largest source of foreign grants is not the United States or Japan, although those two countries have the biggest embassies in Manila.

The country that gives us the largest outright aid that we don’t have to repay is Australia, with official development assistance amounting to A$123 million (about P4.6 billion) for 2009-2010.

There are from 200,000 to 250,000 Filipinos living in Australia, though our Department of Foreign Affairs places the number at up to 350,000. Some of them have done very well. The president and CEO of Nido Petroleum Ltd., which is based here and is involved in oil and gas exploration in Palawan’s Galoc oil field, is a Filipino: former energy undersecretary and PNOC-Exploration Corp. chairman Jocot de Dios. I will have a chat with him in this city later this week.

Next to the US, Australia must be our second strongest partner in defense and internal security cooperation. Yet Australia does not figure prominently in the average Pinoy consciousness. This is probably because our bilateral ties are non-controversial, with no post-colonial baggage to weigh down the development of a healthy relationship, and with no scandals related to aid.

This may be just as well for the Australians. They don’t get flak even when they are negotiating a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with us. The agreement, for one, features reciprocity. It has been ratified by the Australians and should not generate the kind of controversy bred by the VFA with the Americans. But the agreement with Canberra is effectively in limbo until the VFA controversy with the US is resolved.

Canberra has made its alliance with Washington one of the cornerstones of its foreign policy. This has made Australians among the top targets of extremist terrorism in certain parts of the globe.

Yet in our country, Australian presence is largely unobtrusive and welcome. Though there are still communities that remember mining disasters involving Australian companies, the Aussie image in the Philippines is mainly benign.

With about 250 employees, the Australian embassy, housed at the RCBC tower in Makati, is the third largest foreign mission in the Philippines. The office of Ambassador Rod Smith on the 23rd floor has a panoramic view of Metro Manila. On a clear day he can see all the way to Manila Bay.

Australian assistance supports a wide range of projects in many sectors including basic education, the peace process, road rehabilitation and maintenance, population and reproductive health, and other public health concerns such as boosting response to pandemics.

Even before storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng” spawned torrential flooding, Australia had set aside A$11.7 million (about P409.5 million) for the Philippines from 2006 to 2011 for emergency response and disaster preparedness improvement. It has sent additional aid for emergency relief in the wake of the recent disasters.

In sharing its wealth and helping neighbors in need, Australia is not perceived to be aiming for global or regional leadership. Instead it is seen to be doing what it can to make the world a better place, because a better world is good for Australia.

I’m not sure if the Aussies like this perception, and if they want to be a bigger player in geopolitics. But some countries can influence global events simply by showing what can be done right or how their system works.

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This isolated coastal city, the capital of Western Australia, is lovely, multicultural, and blessed like the rest of the country with natural beauty. With a population of only 1.56 million and a clean environment, Perth ranked fifth in The Economist’s 2009 list of the World’s Most Livable Cities. Simply breathing the air along the spectacular beach is a treat.

Australia is the 14th largest economy in the world and the 15th richest in terms of per capita. It ranks third in human development indicators. In 2006 and 2007, Sydney was voted the world’s best city; other Australian cities are consistently picked among the most livable cities in the world.

We are familiar with the country’s unique fauna, including the kangaroo, koala, wombat, the Tasmanian devil and the platypus.

But the landscape is also harsh, and the Australians are worried, like us, about climate change, though for different reasons. Inland and around this city are vast tracts of parched earth. Much of the Australian continent is desert land, with only about six percent arable, and the country has been suffering from a severe drought since 2001.

With only about 21 million people living in the world’s largest island (twice the size of the land area of all the ASEAN members combined), Ambassador Smith told me that Australians are worried about population growth.

In particular, they are worried about the strain that a growing population places on one particular resource: fresh water.

Though there is high public awareness of the need for environmental protection in this country, water pollution continues.

Canberra has launched a 10-year program costing $12.9 billion, called Water for the Future, to secure its water supply. The plan includes measures to address climate change such as emissions trading. It also includes investments in water recycling and desalination.

Fresh water supply is also a problem for us and our continually growing population that is approaching 90 million. It’s an acute problem in flooded areas. This problem won’t go away simply by distributing bottled water to flood victims. It must be included in long-term planning for disaster mitigation and rehabilitation.

In long-term planning, we can take some tips from Australia, our low-key partner in development.