PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is hoping to meet with newly-elected U.S. President Barack Obama when she flies to New York next week for the meeting of global leaders at the United Nations.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that the President is confident of personally extending to President Obama her congratulatory message for winning the U.S. presidential elections even as Malacañang is hoping for greater cooperation with his administration.
“It is high in the agenda,” Ermita said when asked if the President plans to personally meet with Obama during the course of her U.S. visit.
Ermita also said that the Philippine government does not see any drastic changes in the foreign relations policy of the U.S. with our country even as he expressed confidence that the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill would be passed by the U.S. Congress.
Ermita bared that U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie Kenney, personally visited President Arroyo at the Palace to personally bring the good news about Obama’s victory as well as of the outcome of the U.S. elections.
He said that the President earlier tried to get in touch with Obama in the U.S. via an overseas call but failed to talk with him.
He admitted that the President would be excited of working with Obama, being the top leader of the world’s most powerful nation.
Senator Loren Legarda also congratulated Obama.
“I congratulate Senator Barack Obama on his election as the next president of the United States of America. Mr. Obama’s resounding victory showcases the maturity of the American electorate, especially of the youth who shed off apathy to vote in droves, thereby proving that youthful activism can work within the democratic system,” Legarda said in a press statement.
“On President-elect Obama rests the heavy mantle of leadership during these troubled and uncertain times. He has on him the eyes not only of a nation but of the entire world on where he would take America in the next four years. It is my sincere wish that America under President Obama will continue to nurture a healthy bilateral relationship with the Philippines, which would redound to the good of both nations,” she added.
Obama has made history as the first African-American to be elected U.S. president Tuesday