On this official trip, I conferred with key US officials and launched a major initiative in helping build global peace with our partners in the United Nations in pursuance of the President’s foreign policy agenda.

        At the United Nations in New York, I launched the Tripartite Forum for Interfaith Cooperation and Peace which the Philippines will lead during its first year. The Tripartite Forum provides “a mechanism that acknowledges the true role that religions can play and the contributions they can make toward advancing our secular concerns for peace, development and human dignity.

        Present during the launching were representatives from 51 countries, representatives from UN agencies, including the UNESCO and UNICEF, representatives from the academe, and representatives of civil society among them the Committee of Religious NGOs which is composed of 110 organizations.

        The Forum’s launch was welcomed by the current President of the UN General Assembly and newly-appointed Foreign Minister of Sweden Jan Eliasson who described the Philippine initiative as timely and deserving of the support of other nations.

        The Forum builds on the historic Philippine-led Interfaith Initiative which highlighted the chairing in 2005 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the UN Security Council and subsequent interfaith activities such as the recently held Cebu Dialogue on Regional Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, Development and Human Dignity.

        In Washington, D.C.,  met with key US officials from both the Executive and Legislative branches as well as non-governmental organizations to help ensure the peace dividends for the Southern Philippines and sought support for Philippine reform programs as well as our global initiatives on interfaith dialogue, debt and oil.

        I met with Secretary for Veterans Affairs James Nicholson and discussed with him the Philippine Government’s desire to see the passage of legislation on a just and equitable benefits package for Filipino veterans. I am happy to note that Secretary Nicolson conveyed the US Government’s commitment to the welfare of Filipino WW II veterans. Secretary Nicholson is set to visit the Philippines for the first time next month as a concrete manifestation of this commitment.

        I likewise had the opportunity to meet Senator Thad Cochran, Chairman of the US Senate Appropriations Committee, to convey appreciation for the US foreign assistance budget for the Philippines. Sen. Cochran, for his part expressed support for the Philippines’ economic, reform and growth programs.

        To ensure the solid commitment of our civil society partners in securing lasting peace in Mindanao, I met with Ambassador Richard Solomon, President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), to thank the USIP for its support of the Peace Process. Ambassador Solon, in turn, expressed the USIP’s continuing commitment to ensuring the successful conclusion of the Southern Philippines Peace Process.

        Finally, I spoke before a gathering of over fifty Filipino Community Leaders in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia areas and witnessed the oath-taking of twenty-one (21) Filipinos who re-acquired their Filipino citizenship under the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 (R.A. 9225).

        At the same event, I witnessed the turnover of US$ 22, 381 from the World Bank Filipino Staff Association and Feed the Hungry Group, a grant of US$ 5,000 from the World Bank Community Outreach, and US$ 17,200 from various members of the Filipino Community as donations for the victims of the landslide in Southern Leyte. END