GMA, Megawati boost bilateral ties

President Arroyo and Indonesian leader Megawati Sukarnoputri agreed yesterday to strengthen bilateral ties to stop gunrunning activities in the sea border of the two countries.

On the light side, the two leaders also agreed that more Filipino movies would be exported to Indonesia since these are very popular in that country.

Megawati met with Mrs. Arroyo after arriving yesterday afternoon at the start of her nine-nation Southeast Asian tour.

After a brief stop at the Manila Hotel, where she is billeted, Megawati was driven to Malacañang for a 45-minute closed-door meeting with Mrs. Arroyo.

Megawati and her official party were met at the airport by Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. and other senior government officials.

Mrs. Arroyo also discussed with Megawati expanding Philippine-Indonesian ties in cultural, social, trade, and fisheries sectors and reinvigorating a plan to integrate the economies of contiguous areas of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

The two leaders, along with their officials, were to take up ways to further link their agriculture, fisheries and trade.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Mrs. Arroyo and Megawati will also compare anti-poverty programs, the centerpiece platforms of their governments.

Mrs. Arroyo will also thank Megawati for Indonesia’s role in solving the decades-old Muslim separatist problem in Mindanao, he added.

Mrs. Arroyo said she was glad to receive Megawati at a time when her administration had just implemented the final phase of the 1996 peace agreement between the government and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

"Indonesia was highly instrumental in facilitating and hosting the negotiations that led to the agreement," the President said. "And I would like to thank the Indonesian government and the people through President Megawati in helping us redeem the peace in Mindanao."

Mrs. Arroyo said Indonesia continues to chair the committee of the eight which oversees the Organization of Islamic Conference’s involvement in peace and development in Mindanao.

"I am glad that through all these years Indonesia has exercised its leadership in this committee in keeping with the highest respect for Philippine sovereignty and constitutional processes," she said. "And I’m very happy to hear from President Megawati that under her administration, Indonesia will continue to do its part in helping us in peace and development in Mindanao."

Mrs. Arroyo said the Philippines has reciprocated and supported Indonesia’s struggle to keep the country together and allow freedom to remain burning in the young democracy.

"It is also in this spirit that I wish to reciprocate our highest regard and our unremitting support for Indonesia’s quest for unity, peace and progress under its inherent constitutional standards and lofty national ideals," she said.

Megawati’s visit to the country and the rest of ASEAN "marks a new dawn of partnership for peace, development, harmony and progress," like those embodied in the proposed Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia Growth Area, she added.

In response, Megawati thanked Mrs. Arroyo for the "honor and privilege to visit the Philippines," when Mrs. Arroyo invited her last month after she took over Indonesia’s presidency.

Megawati said the Philippines and Indonesia have signed 26 bilateral agreements covering a wide range of areas of cooperation and that more draft agreements were under negotiations, in areas like forestry, tourism, social security, labor and manpower.

"Aside from good bilateral cooperation in many fields, Indonesia views ASEAN as the key institution that enables Indonesia and the Philippines to maintain close ties through a high degree of cooperation on regional and multilateral issues," she said.

Indonesia offered to host peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

It also brokered and hosted talks between the government and the MNLF, which resulted in a peace accord in 1996.

Indonesia heads a committee of eight countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference which is backing the talks.

President Arroyo formally received Megawati at Malacañang yesterday in traditional ceremonies, with the two Chief Executives escorted by their husbands.

Wearing an avocado-green blouse and skirt, Mrs. Arroyo shook hands with Megawati, who had changed to a traditional Muslim attire.

Megawati was accompanied in the presidential limousine by Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman.