Ambassador Goldberg applauded

At the recent Manila leg of Kenny Roger’s farewell world tour held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, US ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg was caught by surprise when the audience suddenly broke into applause as he was entering the concert venue. In fact, a lady went up to the American diplomat to apologize for the “offensive personal remarks” uttered by President Duterte against the highly respected US ambassador during his televised visit to the troops at Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu.

The instant show of acclamation for the ambassador who has been at the crosshairs of the president’s “diplomatic offensive” underscores the deep appreciation Filipinos have for American help in our conflict with the Chinese. Ambassador Goldberg started his tour of duty in November 2013, with his confirmation actually expedited by the US Senate so the diplomat could hit the ground running and help the Philippines deal with the impact of Typhoon Yolanda.

The Philippines was lucky the USS George Washington was anchored at Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong during that time. The US Pentagon was able to rapidly deploy American troops to help in the search and rescue operations in Leyte, with V-22 Ospreys bringing relief goods to people in hard-to-reach areas. Amphibious vessels with medical facilities and water desalination systems were also dispatched.

Ambassador Goldberg recently turned over a two-story, typhoon-resistant school building in Leyte as part of the US government’s $143-million allocation for post-Yolanda rehabilitation efforts in the areas of education, health and livelihood.

The ambassador has been asked by the US State Department to proceed to Washington this week for consultations. The ambassador will be back shortly after to complete his tour of duty which ends in October. The senior American diplomat’s stint in the country is marked by significant milestones in the relationship between the Philippines and the US, among them the State Visit of US President Barack Obama in April 2015 and the APEC Leaders’ Summit last November.

In April 2014, Goldberg and then Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin signed the historic Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Aside from the military modernization aspect, EDCA provides for enhanced humanitarian assistance and disaster response capabilities – a component that is equally critical considering the natural disasters that hit the country due to climate change.

In a recent survey, 90 percent of Filipinos see the presence of American troops in Asia as reassuring especially in light of the unrelenting aggression being displayed by China. Clearly, the residual goodwill for the US continues to be high, evidenced by the appreciative applause by many Filipinos to show support for the US ambassador.

Filipinos biggest source of immigrants to Canada

At a recent Canadian Chamber of Commerce function held at the ballroom of Fairmont hotel in Makati, visiting Canadian Minister for Immigration John McCallum disclosed that the Philippines has become the biggest source of immigrants to Canada. The minister, who first visited the Philippines in 2001 when he was a member of Parliament, also lauded and thanked Ambassador Neil Reeder for his “great service to the Philippines and Canada,” disclosing that Reeder served under the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1980s and now under Trudeau’s son Justin, the current prime minister.

According to the Canadian Immigration minister, over 700,000 Filipino-Canadians now live in Canada, with caregivers a major part of the immigration that comes in every year. In fact, McCallum’s 92-year-old mother is cared for by a Filipino, and one of his ministry colleagues has a father who is also cared for by a Filipino.

Canada has been named as the second best country in the world and it is no surprise that it is a very popular immigration destination for Filipinos. It is also ranked the best in terms of “quality of life” for its excellent programs in education, healthcare, safety and economic stability. Canada is opening its doors to immigrants especially university students from countries all over the world, including the Philippines to attract the best and the brightest to power the Canadian economy forward. Minister McCallum said Canada is reducing barriers to the immigration system with reforms being introduced to lessen processing time.

Refugees have found Canadians very welcoming, with the government resettling more than 25,000 government-assisted and privately sponsored Syrian refugees, with plans to see more than 50,000 other refugees admitted for humanitarian reasons – once they pass the rigorous security tests by the RCMP and other Canadian security and intelligence agencies.

Spy tidbit

MVP Group media bureau head Mike Toledo informed us that one of those who supported Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz was the MVP Sports Foundation of businessman Manny Pangilinan. Apparently, former Philippine Weightlifting Association chief Monico Puentevella approached MVP for help many years ago – and the PLDT boss responded by giving P1 million to help Diaz.

* * *

Email: [email protected].