Bienvenue

After about ten years since leaving Manila, guess who is making a comeback next month to the Philippines? French ambassador Gilles Garachon happily disclosed Peugeot, one of the oldest car-makers of France, is definitely making a comeback to the Philippines. According to the French ambassador, Peugeot is set to arrive in the Philippines — through its authorized local distributor Eurobrands — next month in a showroom in Makati City.

Aside from the famous French car brand, the ambassador was excited to reveal that Philippine Airlines (PAL) has placed a new order for nine more units of Airbus planes. This is on top of the 54 previously ordered by Ramon S. Ang, who heads the new management team now running the show in our country’s flag carrier.

The latest Airbus acquisitions by PAL augur well for the review for the lifting of the current European Union (EU) air travel restrictions to the Philippines, Garachon pointed out. He said he has been helping Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines chief, William Hotchkiss’ campaign to gain favorable ruling from the aviation heads of the 27-member states of EU who would meet in Brussels in November this year.

Ambassador Garachon shared the good news to us over a dinner reception the other night at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. The new French ambassador to the Philippines was feted in a traditional welcome affair hosted in his honor by Philippine honorary consuls Fortune Ledesma and Agnes Huibonhua.

The freshly installed ambassador of France formally presented his credentials to President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III at Malacañang Palace only last February.

But the ambassador is obviously still charmed by the very warm reception he got from P-Noy at the Palace.

He fondly recalls his meeting with P-Noy who he described as exuding honesty, has an engaging smile, and a “sense of humor.” During this Palace meeting, Garachon said he took the opportunity to renew the invitation to P-Noy to make an official or state visit to Paris. He particularly invited P-Noy to time his visit to Paris in April next year to grace the scheduled inauguration of the exhibit of Philippine ancient culture and arts. Garachon said a French museum would hold the exhibit of these Philippine artifacts dating back to pre-Spanish times.

Speaking of Spanish, we also visited the Museo de Ejercito in Toledo City while we were in Spain last week. We found to our dismay that Filipinas (the Philippines) was presented in pictures of very primitive people of Aetas and their anitos. The exhibit in this museum is all about Spanish army (ejercito) and their colonial conquests of countries from Asia to Africa and American continents.

Someone from our group joked the Spanish museum curator would not, of course, show how Lapu-lapu killed, defeated and drove the Spaniards out of the Philippine islands. The Spanish colonial army, led by Ferdinand Magellan (who was actually Portuguese) was credited with the discovery of our country on their expedition bankrolled by Spanish King Felipe from whom our country got its name.

Anyway, the French envoy believed the attendance of President Aquino would add honor to this exhibit of Philippine artifacts in Paris.

Garachon was even unperturbed when told the President would likely turn down the invitation due to the proximity of the date to the holding of the country’s midterm elections on May 13, 2013.

He gladly gave his fallback plan. He told us he gave the President an alternative date of the proposed Paris visit after the election. Since the Philippine exhibit would run over an extended period, he explained, the formal opening would proceed as scheduled on April 8. The President, he said, could just make a ceremonial inauguration later in May.

Former Philippine ambassador to France, Jose A. Zaide, who was among the few selected guests in the same reception, quickly reminded Garachon that France still owes the Philippine government a reciprocal state visit to Manila of either their country’s President or Prime Minister. France actually owes the Philippines two already, Zaide said.

P-Noy’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino made a state visit in France during the bicentennial of the French Republic, or the Bastille Day anniversary in July 1989. In 1993, former President Fidel Ramos also made a state visit to France.

On a personal note, I covered a presidential event in France when former President and now Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went to Paris in September 2003. But Zaide clarified it was only an “official” visit, not a state visit because ex-President Arroyo actually went to the UNESCO headquarters which was based in Paris.

To our ribbing, Ambassador Garachon promised to work out a reciprocal state visit to Manila of either the French President or Prime Minister if only to convince P-Noy to accept the invitation to visit Paris next year. In the meantime, Garachon expressed optimism of increased French interest in the Philippines under P-Noy’s administration.

Examples of such interest he mentioned were modular bridges, French patrol boats and Peugeot’s scheduled reentry in the local market. In particular, Peugeot’s 5008 would make a splash on the opening of the showroom next month.

I don’t know much about cars, especially luxury ones. All I know is the lion trademark that distinguishes Peugeot. From my Google search, I found out the Peugeot 5008 is a compact multi-purpose vehicle. It was unveiled by Peugeot in June 2009 and has been on sale since late 2009. Five- and seven-seat versions are currently available in the European market.

The French ambassador is not conversant as to how much Peugeot is priced and if this car would click with the Filipino market. From my last reading of the business page, car sales in the Philippines has gone down year-on-year. 

With gasoline prices steeping high, the return of Peugeot at this period may be wrong timing. But as they say in French, Bienvenue Peugeot!