12 May 2004 - Secretary Delia Domingo Albert held a dialogue yesterday with five Jefferson Fellows journalists on various issues, including the 10 May 2004 elections.

“The Jefferson Fellows were quite impressed with our election exercise, particularly by the fact that each voter can directly elect his or her leader,” Secretary Albert said.  Several countries, including the US, do not directly elect their president and vice-president.  “They were also impressed by the magnitude of the exercise and how we were able to address the difficulties inherent in an exercise of such scale,” she added.

The group was composed of Wilma B. Consul, Assistant Producer for National Public Radio in Washington, DC; Sally Graham, Coordinating Producer and Writer for CNN International in Atlanta, Georgia; Howard Goldberg, Assistant Bureau Chief-Southern California and Nevada for The Associated Press based in Los Angeles; Stephanie Shapiro, reporter for the Baltimore Sun in Baltimore, Maryland; and Martin Wolk, Chief Economics Correspondent for MSNBC.com in Redmond, Washington.

Their visit is part of the Philippine program of the “Spring 2004 Jefferson Fellowship” organized by the Hawaii-based East-West Center Media Program in cooperation with the Philippines’ Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).  The program aims to provide journalists with profound understanding and appreciation of the Philippines through first-hand experience and greater knowledge of Philippine history and culture, and the country’s political, social and economic issues.

The Secretary had a lively discussion of diverse issues with the American journalists which included the presidential elections, overseas absentee voting, developments in Mindanao, Filipinos in the Middle East, RP foreign policy, RP-US relations, RP-China relations, South China Sea issue, the Iraq situation and the status of women in the Philippines.

The five US journalists will be in Manila until 13 May 2004 to meet with Philippine officials, business executives, prominent media practitioners and academicians.  END.