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9-Day Trip ‘Successful’

December 23, 2007

with the Queen of EnglandMANILA President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her party arrived at about 1 a.m. Dec. 11 after her successful nine-day, four-country mission where she managed on her return trip to get a reprieve for a convicted overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who would have been hanged in Kuwait by February next year, a Malacanang press release said.

Arroyo, it said, kicked off her European trip last Dec. 2 with a private visit to the miraculous Lourdes grotto in France, was feted by the Kingdom of Spain to a state visit, the first such state visit by a Philippine President some 45 years after the 1962 state visit of her late father, former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal.

The press release continued: The President then proceeded to London where she had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth to whom she expressed her gratitude for the United Kingdoms benign treatment of OFWs, most of them working as caregivers in England and Ireland. No mentioned was made of the fact that the British government is about to deport thousands of caregivers whose visas have expired.

In London, President Arroyo also had a meeting with Englands former Prime Minister Tony Blair with whom she discussed our ongoing efforts at peace and reconciliation in the Muslim areas in Mindanao in the far south of the Philippines.”

In her meeting with the Queen, Arroyo thanked her for the good treatment of the growing 150,000 Filipino community as she sought to enhance Philippine bilateral relations with the United Kingdom during their historic meeting here.
The President held a 30-minute private audience with the Queen of England at the Buckingham Palace at around 12:10 p.m. Dec. 6 on the last leg of her European journey.

Fresh from her fruitful four-day state visit in Spain, Mrs. Arroyo accompanied by her large delegation arrived late Dec. 5 in the chilly capital of England for a two-day official visit. Mrs. Arroyo, speaking to Filipino community leaders a few hours before her scheduled audience with the Queen, said she also expects to receive praises from the Queen for the valuable contributions and achievements of Filipino workers in healthcare, information technology, education, aviation, hospital sector, and food industry.

Mrs. Arroyo noted that Filipinos living and working in the UK has increased from roughly 18,000 in 1986 to more than 150,000 in 2006. She also cited that six Filipinos are born every day in the United Kingdom as proof of the growing Filipino community.

Her mission on the 4-day state visit to Spain starting Dec. 2, according to Malacanang, was to draw more foreign investments to the Philippines and strengthen economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries.
In Spain, the President told the Filipino community that the quick, forceful but peaceful resolution of last months coup attempt in the Philippines demonstrated to the world that the countrys democratic institutions are safe, secure and stable.

She invited Filipinos working in Spain to invest in the Philippines, particularly in financial and capital investments.
-”Filipinos in Spain on Sunday expressed their full support for Arroyos goal of achieving a peaceful, progressive and united Philippines. The expression of support was contained in a manifesto they presented to her during her meeting with more than 1,000 Filipino migrant workers from all over Spain at the La Salle Colegio Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas Sunday night.”

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