Today, I have a confession to make.

In 1967 when I joined the Department of Foreign Affairs, one of my secret weapons and my partner as the “cordon sanitaire” of Secretary of Foreign Affairs Narciso Ramos, was his MOPC membership card.  With the card, I could take some of his guests to the MOPC at the Admiral Building on Roxas Boulevard.  I also used my presence at MOPC to give the idea that my boss will be there – while he escaped to other meetings that we didn’t want to publicize.

Sometimes, I succeeded in convincing Kiko de Leon of Chronicle, Kit Tatad of Bulletin and Doro Doronilla of Daily Mirror that indeed my boss was at MOPC, when all the while he was meeting with special envoys.

Unfortunately, as Secretary of Foreign Affairs myself, I have no membership card in any association or clubs which my assistants or staff could use to distract attention from my movements.

Thank you Manong Max and thank you Tony for the invitation to MOPC breakfast. I had hoped that the dinner with the President at the Intercontinental last Friday was sufficient to cover your concerns on Philippine foreign policy but as I had promised I am here this morning.
 

Realities and Pillars

To make sure that Philippine foreign policy would not only be truly relevant but also focused, President Arroyo has identified specific realities of the regional and international environment that would guide Philippine foreign policy under her leadership.  These realities acknowledge the new and emerging roles of certain countries and groups of countries and pinpoint the issues that directly bear on our interests. With the President’s eight realities fully presented to you last Friday, let me focus on my presentation this morning, on the three pillars of foreign policy,  to implement the President’s eight realities.

When I was appointed by the President last year following the demise of Secretary Ople, one of my concerns as a career diplomat of 37 years, I joined when I was five, was to improve the structural framework within which to situate our foreign policy. This way, I can better explain or define what we at the DFA do. One of the things I promised my friends was to demystify foreign policy through public diplomacy.

That structural framework is built around three pillars:

     First – the preservation and enhancement of national security; which is actually a political function of our missions abroad.

     Second – the promotion and attainment of economic security through the mobilization of external resources for economic advancement and social development, an economic function of our missions; and

     Third – the protection of the rights, and the promotion of the welfare and interests, of Filipinos overseas.

These pillars overlap and cannot be considered apart from each other. They reinforce each other and must be addressed as one whole.  I will illustrate this by discussing three specific cases: the President’s ten-point agenda, the Angelo de la Cruz Case and our bid for Observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
 

Philippine Foreign Policy Perspectives

But before that, I would like to touch briefly on certain perspectives of Philippine foreign policy.

For the President, and she had said so in her speeches, foreign policy is not a luxury but a tool.  For the President, foreign policy has little meaning unless it brings change that is relevant.

Foreign policy is most relevant when it works for the people.  It is most relevant when it is shorn of its mystique and is better understood.

And when it is better understood, when there is greater national support and consensus behind it, Philippine foreign policy is at its most effective. The Philippines as a nation can no longer be exclusively defined by conventional notions of territorial metes and bounds.

Dramatic progress and developments in trade and technology, commerce and communication, have created a smaller world.  It may be a smaller world but it is a world that is infinitely more complex.

Our vital interests lie wherever there are Filipinos.

Our more than seven million overseas Filipinos are in over 165 countries and on ships on all the world’s oceans. I’m sure our Norwegian friends can attest to that. Events in other countries and regions impact our own.

Our vital interests lie wherever events in the rest of the world impact on our nation.  In today’s globalized world, developments in other parts of our shrinking planet cause not only ripples but also massive waves that hit our shores with the speed of thought and the ferocity of a storm.

Today, world peace and global stability are no longer political abstractions. The need to preserve and maintain the peace and security of mankind is a harsh reality that lays bare the clear and pressing demands on our diplomacy.

In this complex and challenging world, our profound and vital interests stand, as I earlier defined, on the three pillars of our foreign policy which I have identified earlier. Of these functions let me start with the President’s ten point agenda.
 

The President’s Ten-Point Agenda

All of you are familiar with the 10-point agenda that the President laid out during her inaugural speech.

At first glance, these are all specific projects that may not seem directly connected to the work of the DFA, but given the mindset of relevance and change, the DFA as an institution can and will contribute its share towards achieving these goals.

The Department of Foreign Affairs through the 2,332 men and women, I think we a large number of women, who represent us in the Home Office and in our 85 posts abroad, is often said to be our first line of defense against such issues as terrorism, transnational crime, and regional tensions and instability.

It should be pointed out however, that just as we are in a position to prevent unwanted foreign influences or events from affecting our country, we I believe, are also in the best position to attract or negotiate for much needed foreign investment, transfer of technology and development assistance.  In this way, the 10-point agenda, which the cabinet has incorporated in a broader National Development Agenda, can be addressed in part by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Even in this context, it would seem that the President’s ten-point agenda would only involve our economic diplomacy pillar.  But a fundamental requirement for the Philippines to strengthen its economic and trade relations is to have good  excellent political relations.

Common political and security interests often translate into economic interests.  Unless we have good and friendly relations with states, we cannot expect them to trade or invest with us.
 

The Angelo de la Cruz Case

Which perhaps is a good lead-in to my discussion of the Angelo de la Cruz case and our decision to withdraw our humanitarian contingent to Iraq earlier than scheduled.

First of all, as the President has stated, we made a decision to save the life of a Filipino and we make no apologies for that.

We are, of course, not unaware of the implications of such a decision.

But, I can say with much confidence, our relations with the United States have withstood its most recent challenge. This is not to say that we do not have differences.  We did.

Contrary to speculations of dire consequences, we are putting our relations back on track.  Trade, economic and cultural relations remain unchanged. Cooperation between our two countries continues on many other fronts.

As strategic treaty allies, joint military training exercises continue throughout the year, particularly in the area of counter-terrorism.  The RP-US Mutual Defense Board will be meeting shortly to prepare for next year’s joint military training exercises.

Cooperation will also continue over the next five years on the Philippine Defense Reform Program. We continue our cooperation in support of our efforts in our search for peace in Mindanao, particularly in post-conflict rebuilding.  Our economic, trade and cultural relations remain robust.  Interest in the Philippines remains high and is reflected in the investment mission organized by the US-ASEAN Business Council that we are hosting in Manila next month.

We are very aware of the regret that the United States feels over our decision in Iraq.  And it remains in both our interests to address any remaining concerns that we both may have.

Our desire to protect the life of one of our nationals had a direct implication on our relations with other countries as well. We also had useful relations with other countries to successfully rescue Angelo de la Cruz.

Our political and security concerns in the Middle East also hinge on our desire to protect our 1.5 million Filipinos there as well as the need to preserve a reliable source of a strategic commodity.  A secure and democratic Iraq will contribute to a stable Middle East.  A stable Middle East means a safer Middle East for our Filipinos who live and work there. It also reduces the possibility of disruptions to our oil supplies.

Let me now turn to the Philippines and the Organization of Islamic Conference.
 

The Philippines and the OIC

Another clear instance where these three pillars have proven necessary and work as one in pursuing our interests is our search for peace in Mindanao.

Armed Muslim secessionist moves, has indeed taken its toll on the people and future of Mindanao.   The absence of peace has brought misery to the Filipino people.  Many lives have been lost as well as opportunities for growth and development. Clearly, more had to be done.

To complete existing efforts, the President opened a diplomatic front in our quest for peace in Mindanao.

The first step was to isolate the armed groups from international support.  The next step was to bring international support entirely on our side and our search for peace.  This was to be followed by focused efforts to enlist the assistance of specific countries, many of whom are here with us this morning, as effective third party facilitators.  All these proceeded from the first pillar of our foreign policy.

An important factor in our search for peace in Mindanao was our heightened engagement with the Organization of Islamic Conference.   I was indeed honored and so was my predecessor, was honored by Iran with an invitation to attend as a guest last year. I was honored with an invitation to attend the 31st Islamic Foreign Ministers Meeting in Istanbul last June.  We received categorical and formal recognition of our efforts at peace in Mindanao from the Organization of Islamic Conference. I had a marathon 34 bilateral meetings with OIC foreign ministers in period of two and half days. I also met with heads of delegations and received their firm assurances of support for our peace process.

I shall be meeting more ministers next week when I attend the 14th Ministerial Meeting of  the Non-Aligned Movement or NAM in South Africa, where many OIC countries are members.

The OIC supports our efforts at finding peace and for the territorial integrity of our country.

Some of them, I may add, share similar challenges in their own backyards.  This not only means that secessionist groups could no longer expect material or political support from outside.  This also means that any one else that might be hoping for external support to fulfill dreams of secession need a serious reality check.

In helping address the root causes of internal conflict in Mindanao and to ensure that peace takes hold, we mobilized our diplomatic forces to obtain development assistance and investments for conflict and post-conflict areas.

Last Tuesday, I was delighted to sign the agreement for the European Commission’s (EC) National Indicative Program (NIP) for the Philippines for 2002-2004 and 2005-2006 and financing agreements of two (2) EC-assisted Good Governance Program, with a total value of 63 million euros, anybody knows the exchange rate? 63 million euros today is 4.3 billion pesos. The EU is a major partner in our nation-building efforts and EC-Philippine development cooperation focuses on poverty alleviation in rural areas, including areas in Mindanao.

I have personally lobbied for international economic support for Mindanao, including funding for projects that give the women of Mindanao a greater role in the search for peace, including the USAID-sponsored Conference-Workshop on the Role of Muslim Women in Peace-Building and Development in Marawi last month, this was attended by 800 Muslim women leaders from all over Mindanao. By the way perhaps today I can add a few titles, I am "Bai-A-Rawtun sa Pilimpinas of Marawi".

It is here as you can see, how our second pillar of economic diplomacy, is hard at work in tandem with the first pillar, which we link to economic diplomacy for peace and security in Mindanao.

Our third pillar is also deeply involved in our quest for peace in Mindanao.  In mainstreaming our relations with the members of the OIC in our search for peace, we also directly strengthened our ability to relate to them in terms of protecting the safety and welfare of our Filipinos in their countries. When I was meeting with Foreign Ministers on our observer status in the OIC, I concluded some agreements for the protection of our workers in the Middle East. Our improved political relations with the OIC countries are indeed translating into better treatment for our workers and greater cooperation in our own efforts to protect them.

My contacts in the OIC helped me a lot in addressing the Angelo de la Cruz case.

When we negotiated for access through certain Middle East countries as part of our contingency plans during the Iraq war, we received their full cooperation and again many of them are represented here and I thank them for being such cooperative partners in assisting us throughout our strategic plans for our nationals to be safe in their areas as part of our strategic plan for our workers in the Middle East.  We also received full cooperation when we asked certain Middle East countries not to allow our truck drivers into Iraq at the moment.  These improved relations as I said earlier, proved to be the key to Angelo de la Cruz’s safe release.
 

Conclusion

While our foreign policy stands firmly on these three pillars, our foreign policy would not be fully realized if not for the dedicated and professional men and women of the Department.

Their work and achievements were recognized by no less than the President during the Department’s 106th foundation day last month when she said and I am pleased to quote:

“DFA personnel have in fact time and again over my last three years as president, over the last three weeks, and even during the previous times when I was not yet president that I interacted with you, you have shown, indeed, that you have among the best brains in the country.”

As one of the few career Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, I am extremely proud of the capabilities of my very small Department and I hope to enlist your continued support for the institution, and for our officers and staff who faithfully serve our country’s national interests. Overworked but underpaid.

Thank you and good day.