Embassy of the United States in Manila

U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone
Opening Remarks
Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines
May 11, 2005
The Dusit Hotel

Thank you so much, Virgilio. As always, it’s a special pleasure to join the Foreign and Overseas Correspondents Association of the Philippines, for you were among my first media hosts when I arrived here over three years ago. Today, however, it’s a slightly wistful pleasure, as Virgilio has suggested, because this is the last opportunity I will have to have this kind of a conversation with you before I move on. A little later today, I will be addressing another group, the Philippines Council for Islam and Democracy. Together, both your forum and theirs are vital to the preservation of freedom and the advancement of governance here in East Asia’s first democracy, so I think it is especially right and good that I’ll be with you on my last business day here.

This is the 6 th time, that we’ve come together, so we’ve kept pretty close to the hope that former FOCAP President Gabby Tabunar and I had established at the outset, of meeting about every six months or so.

Some cynics in the diplomatic corps say that things never change in the Philippines, but I can prove to you that’s not true. In my 39 months, I’ve served with:

6 Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines;
4 Foreign Secretaries;
4 Justice Secretaries
4 PNP Chiefs;
3 Defense Secretaries;
3 Education Secretaries;
3 Finance Secretaries;
3 Trade and Industry secretaries
only 2 Executive Secretaries;. . . but . . .
Only one President! (Even if, in this freewheeling democracy, there are 82 million wannabe Presidents. . .. and 260-odd members of the Legislature -- plus the untold numbers of retired military officers who want to be president. . .)

So you see, I’ve made more official friends than most Ambassadors get to make in most overseas assignments . . .

I hope you won’t be surprised if I tell you that I am leaving with a fair degree of confidence and optimism about this country and its future, and particularly about our future – the future of the American-Philippines partnership. For it’s overwhelmingly clear to me that together, the U.S. and Philippines are succeeding in accomplishing the twin goals that our two Presidents had set since they took office on the same day in January 2001: revitalizing the Philippine-American relationship, and carrying it to real maturity.

We matter to each other again. We are paying attention to each other, and we are cooperating on so many important shared interests, like protecting our peoples against international terrorism, and against other crimes including money laundering, corruption, theft of intellectual property, and smuggling of drugs and of people. Just last week, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick re-visited the Philippines to reaffirm our bilateral ties. He was the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit this country since the second inauguration of President George W. Bush. And my good friend Secretary Romulo will visit with Secretary Rice and other senior officers of my government in Washington in just a few days.

You’ve often heard me refer to our Embassy’s three major “business lines” as we work to revitalize and to mature our relationship: they are strengthening our mutual security, building our mutual prosperity, and serving the Filipino and American publics. And you know we have aimed to do all we do with excellence – to be the best US Embassy anywhere. So, I would like to suggest we start our conversation today by going behind the headlines to touch on just a few of the positive achievements in Philippines-American cooperation since 2001.

Strengthening our Mutual Security:

Advancing our mutual defense:

The devastating events of September 11, 2001 brought the need for our mutual security sharply into focus. Today, there is no question that our two nations stand stronger and closer in the fight against terrorism. The Armed Forces of the Philippines have bolstered their skills, readiness, and capabilities over the past four years. They are scoring increasing successes against terrorists, including several condemned by name around the world and by the United Nations. These increasing capabilities did not just arise in the natural order of things, but have required major resources from both our countries, and real leadership, sacrifice, and the will to change.

Thanks to the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2003 Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, our military cooperation has meaningfully advanced. Exercises such as Balikatan 2002-1 have contributed directly and effectively to the return of peace and hope to Basilan. Balikatan and our other joint training exercises also have yielded the flawless interoperability which our forces demonstrated in emergency disaster relief and rescue operations, from Leyte, to Aurora, to the South China Sea.

Strengthening our Mutual Security –

Advancing the Rule of Law:

Strengthening the rule of law is no less vital to our mutual security than is building our joint military capabilities. Some of you will recall the outcry generated in my FOCAP debut in July 2002. I had thought I was safe, and even respectful, when I joined the national leadership, and the local, and foreign and business communities, in citing corruption and weakness of the rule of law as deterrents to foreign investment, and indeed as the principal challenges to the Philippines’ democracy. Three years later, despite major advances and truly heroic efforts by some selfless leaders in government, in business, and the NGO community, Filipino leaders still continue to emphasize that combating corruption and strengthening the rule of law are at the heart of the solution to so many of the problems afflicting the Philippines today.

We still agree with that proposition, and we support all those who are committed to strengthening democracy and the rule of law in this important allied country. So, for example, as Secretary Zoellick reaffirmed last week, we are carefully studying your Government’s Millennium Challenge Concept proposal, to how we might contribute further to advance President Arroyo’s campaign against corruption and years of declining national fiscal circumstances.

Let’s look at some of the ways we’ve stepped up our cooperation in the rule of law. The Bush and Arroyo Administrations have brought life to the 1996 US-RP E xtradition Treaty. Seventy percent of all extraditions from the Philippines to the U.S. have taken place since 2001. As important as actual extraditions is the fact that both countries have cleaned up the backlog of pending extradition requests in each direction.

Meanwhile, our Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty also has advanced our legal cooperation on still more fronts. The MLAT permitted us to work together to create the Anti-Money Laundering Council, for example. This has enabled the Philippines to strengthen its banking system, speed worker remittances and lower costs, and get off the FATF blacklist. The MLAT also enabled the United States to provide three witnesses for Philippines courts, including Gracia Burnham, resulting in the conviction of 17 Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

Our legal cooperation likewise has contributed powerfully to the campaign against corruption. For example, the Garcia case could prove to be a watershed – helping to bring the Philippines to a ‘tipping’ point — against historic tolerance of a culture of corruption in the military, and in government service more generally.

Building our Mutual Prosperity:

Our Presidents also share the conviction that military and law enforcement means are both insufficient, and the most costly, of the tools required to protect our countries from the global spread of violent fanaticism. Both leaders recognize that just as vitally necessary are investments in economic opportunity and education.

So, for example, this year, USAID is providing more than $89 million in economic assistance to the Philippines this year, more than double the 2001 levels. In Mindanao alone, USAID is providing $54 million in assistance, two and a half times 2001 levels. From over a dozen trips to the ARMM, I have witnessed how American programs, in support of local partners, often in partnership with the U.S. Peace Corps, and invariably in partnership with the Government of the Philippines at multiple levels and with enlightened Filipino business people and NGOs, are helping local leaders put conflict behind them, and create a future of promise for their children. I’ve met leaders such as Datu ‘Toto’ Paglas, Amina Rasul and her mother Santanina Rasul, the former Senator, Congressman Jerry Salapuddin, Governor Ben Loong, Gov. Parouk Hussin, MSU President Camar Umpa, Ustadz Ibrahim Ghadzali in Jolo, Dr. Farrah Tan-Omar of the Sulu Provincial Hospital, Yasmin Busran-Lao of the Al-Mujadilah Foundation -- these people and so many, many, more are reviving Mindanao and reviving its hope and promise for the future. These are the people who believe in the future of themselves and their community and their country and are working for peace and prosperity, for freedom and democracy, for justice to right historic wrongs, even as they uphold their great religious tradition.

The positive energy in this country and local dynamism are sometimes easier to see the farther one goes from the politics and punditry of Manila. Not far outside Manila, and sometimes even in Manila, I have met innumerable dedicated individuals with whom the U.S. Government is joining forces:

Church leaders and ulema, who are building bridges over chasms of historical injustice and intolerance;
School superintendents and teachers, who are upgrading their own English language and mathematics and science and other substantive skills, as well as their schools’ facilities;
Leaders of parent-teacher organizations, who are partnering with businesses and NGOs to bring the Internet to classrooms all over Mindanao and the Visayas;
Micro-entrepreneurs – nearly all of them women, including nurse-midwives who are running their own practices – who repay loans at stunning rates of reliability, breaking the shackles of poverty;
Former combatants of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who are now successful farmers of fish, seaweed, rice, and corn, and who are great and proud providers for their families and communities.
Governors, mayors, and barangay captains, who are improving local governance capacity in so many ways: from anti-corruption initiatives; to barangay justice programs to reduce the near-paralysis of many local courts; they sacrifice to generate the counterpart funding and support needed for USAID projects like the USAID-DOE-private sector “AMORE” program – that’s the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy program, that has lit up over 200 remote barangays of former combatants. Similarly, in the small and medium scale infrastructure program, we have provided various economically productive infrastructure projects to over 240 local communities. All this in the past few years.

With all of these things, it has been my privilege in those trips to Mindanao to see a part of the country that is building, that has great people, who are doing what is right and good, and who can demonstrate the best of the Philippines – what is uplifting and inspirational about this great country.

The ARMM elections are coming up. It seems to me that Malacanang has announced a very wise course that makes it easier for the rest of us to cooperate, and that is rather than selecting or even appear to select who will be the next leader of the ARMM, Malacanang has made it clear that the national Government is dedicated itself to providing and helping to provide the most credible, clean, reliable elections that can possibly be had. And why not? What a great outcome that would be, if the next string in the beadwork being created of democracy breaking out in the Muslim world is no longer just the elections in Iraq and the elections in Palestine, and the people power movement we’ve seen in Lebanon, but what if the next item is Mindanao’s elections, where the people there have a knock-down, drag out -- but not violent -- campaign? And you choose from any number of excellent candidates who are standing -- and the people choose wisely, because they know they will have to live with the results – it won’t be Manila to blame. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing? And that could happen in 100 days. It could happen. It will all depend upon the people there and upon the support they’re able to get from the national government and for that matter, from the rural community.

In that context, of course, there’s the question I’ve often raised when I’ve met with members of FOCAP, and that is, what will all the people of Mindanao choose? What about other organizations? We know the Bangasmoro Development Agency, for example, is choosing the course of peace and development. What about the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)? What course will they choose, or will all of its members choose, and its leadership choose? Will they choose to continue the struggle for freedom and justice and democracy and strength through peace? Or will they tolerate among them bombers, kidnappers, who preach a kind of phony and perverted notion of jihad, instead of the real jihad that the people of Mindanao so much deserve -- the struggle for freedom and justice and democracy and growth and development. Let’s see. That’s an open question. Let’s hope that everyone makes the right choice.

If they do, and for all those who do make the right choice, you can count on the United States, and I think, the entire world community, to stand with you, in seeing Mindanao upheld not as the place of focus for terrorist warnings, but on the contrary, as a showcase for what can be, not what has been.

* * * * * * * *

At the outset I joked about “6 Chiefs of Defense, 4 Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, 3 Justice Secretaries . . . and just one President.” But the series continues: this country with zero Ministers of Information. And that is one of the strengths here. It’s hard for me to imagine that any Filipino would ever accept Government direction or control of information, even if they tried, and I can’t imagine that would happen. So you do have in your country, all of you, the members of the media, who are upholding one of the great strengths of the country, and that is freedom, freedom of a democratic debate and information. There are dark, anti-democratic forces at work against your institution of freedom, and we join FOCAP members and other Filipino media members, and the Government of the Philippines, in their determination to protect Filipino journalists and all journalists working here, in condemning the murders of Filipino media professionals, and praising the heroism of all of you who practice your profession both bravely and responsibly.

Despite uneven professional standards and traditions, lack of resources, political inducements, pressures and outright threats, the media in the Philippines do boast some heroic accomplishments. In the Garcia case as others, the media can take due credit for exposing the malefactors in the democratic institutions of this country. I have in mind the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism, for example; or the great work Maria Ressa is doing, who gave up a world-class career with CNN, to return to the Philippines to work with ABS-CBN to raise the standards and skills in her profession here. There really are heroes at work in this country today, in the media, in government, in business, in education, and in so many NGOs -- and they deserve, you deserve, domestic and international recognition and support.

I have met so very many such Filipinos in these past three years that I am certain this country has all it needs to turn the corner, to reach the tipping point, in the remaining five years of President Arroyo’s lawful term of office. I risk slighting very many by naming just a few of the people who have really inspired me and whom I think of as heroes in your country for doing all the right things despite the odds: people like Defense Secretary Cruz, General Abu, Ombudsman Marcelo, and Congressional National Defense Committee Chair Golez, who are sustaining and expanding the investigations and prosecutions of the several current high-ranking AFP corruption cases. Other determined, exemplary public servants with whom the United States has been privileged to cooperate in strengthening our ally against corruption include people like Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo; SBMA Chairman Francisco Licuanan III, outgoing Central Bank Governor Rafael Buenaventura, who is now convalescing in the United States and who is a good friend of mine; Mercy Gutierrez, formerly the Secretary of Justice and now the Chief Counsel to the President, Connie de Guzman, Haydee Yorac, who was with the Government, and Emily Boncodin, who doesn’t make the limelight, but who is there with her green eyeshade and sharp pencil and tries to squeeze every peso for its maximum value; and in the Judiciary, Justices Davide and Panganiban – people all across government and in the legislature as well.

Private sector leaders also are fighting to improve state and corporate governance, and to open educational and economic opportunity – later this afternoon, I will be joining GLOBE telecom, and the Ayala family, in another educational project for Muslim Mindanao. . . Former Secretary of Finance Jose “Titoy” Pardo, Ed Salazar’s Philippines Business for Social Progress Group, the Lopez family and Synergeia Foundation President, ‘Neneh’ Guevara. And so many more, such as the Transparency and Accountability Network and Procurement Watch, who have joined the public-private sector alliance against corruption in the Philippines. The business leaders who founded and support the Asia Society and the Magsaysay Foundation, who celebrate the best of the Philippines and its fit within the broader Asian context and who are building bridges of understanding among Asians and Americans . . . so many, many, such people, I could go on all afternoon.

I have mentioned my friend Bert Romulo, the Executive Secretary Ed Ermita, with whom I’m on the phone so many times a week, Delia Albert, the late Blas Ople, who helped to resolve so many problems and issues that come up, and seized so many opportunities with the United States, working very patiently with me. Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade and Industry Secretary Johnny Santos -- we worked hard on many things that sound boring and don’t get headlines – but we worked all day long to try to boost trade and investment between our two countries. I traveled the length and breadth of the country with the former Energy Secretary Vince Perez, from Bataanes to Tawi-Tawi, probably more than many of you who get to live here, because I knew I was here for only three years. People who are doing wonderful things. You’ve heard a lot about our continuing work together to improve the intellectual property situation, but we must give credit where it is due. You have some heroes who are struggling against a terrible problem. The DTI Director General Adrian Cristobal, Optical Media Board Chairman Edu Monzano, and Optical Media Board Executive Director Marivic Benedicto are all people who are working hard and making progress to protect the intellectual creativity of Filipinos against theft and by doing so are also protecting the interests of foreign investors who want to invest to make the Philippines a source for creating intellectual property – you have to hope they will succeed if you want to be part of the knowledge economy that is the future.

I could mention so many more, but I will be getting on an airplane in 48 hours, so there won’t be time to go down my full list.

We’ve done a lot here, but I’m conscious of all the things that I haven’t done – a long list of places that I want to go and people I still want to meet. We’ve climbed a few mountains, I’ve scuba dived in a lot of different places, I have long list of those that remain. I sampled bangus at Dagupan and durian in Davao. I have the T-shirts to prove it. I’ve been to Mindanao countless times, at least fourteen, probably more, many trips to Jolo, all the provinces of the ARMM, my life is so much the richer for having experienced the beauty of this land and this wonderful country that varies so much, with so many different ethnic and linguistic traditions.

Last month I swam with whale sharks in Donsol, and two days ago I was scuba diving with the former DENR Secretary Bebet Gozun and former Energy Secretary Vince Perez and the President in Coron – another item I can check off my list in my last days. I still have yet to climb Mts. Apo and Mayon, and I’ll have to come back for that. The Tubbataha and Apo reefs -- my scuba diving friends torture me with the delights that await me there, that I haven’t been able to sample yet. And I’m still demanding justice in court from the DILG Secretary, my good friend Angie Reyes – I refer to the tennis court – who routinely abuses my human rights, and I aim to get even one day.

So I’ve made many friends, both high places and low – I’d say more high than low -- and it makes it hard to leave this seductively beautiful country, but my predecessors have all come back often, and I certainly hope to do the same.

So with that, let me give you your best shot. Thank you very much, it’s been great working with you all.

* * * * *

U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone
Question and Answer Session with the
Foreign and Overseas Correspondents Association of the Philippines
May 11, 2005, The Dusit Hotel, Makati

VIRGILIO GALVEZ: With that, Gabby, would you like to take the first shot?

Q: (Gabby Tabunar, CBS News) Basilan has been held up by some sectors as a prime example of military-social-civic effort, Mr. Ambassador. Is that a microcosm of what you have in mind in Mindanao?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: One thing I’ve learned is that every place is a little different from the others in the Philippines, but what is clear is that at the local level there is an awful lot that is working. Because at the local level, whether a political person, a government person, or an NGO leader, a religious teacher – Christian or Muslim – or a business leader, you have a stake in what happens. What happens matters to you because it happens to your family and to your friends. So, I see good things happening in Basilan. It is a success story, but success is never over. You have to keep working on it; you can’t stop paying attention. So I’ve gone back several times. [Deputy Chief of Mission] Joe Mussomeli has gone back. And I hope that some of the kinds of things that we all learned together and were able to do in Basilan will have application elsewhere.

For example, Jolo is very different from Basilan, but just as before Balikatan ’02, U.S. soldiers went there and asked a lot of questions. They went to learn. They asked a lot of sociology kinds of questions. The kinds of things that [Department of Social Work and Development] Secretary Dinky Soliman – another hero – already knows. But to go there and ask those questions and to ask them with soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, shows the local people – I don’t know if it was the first time, but they showed that soldiers – foreign soldiers and their own soldiers – can in fact have a different intent toward them than simply breaking things, killing people or shooting guns. The intent can be to build, and restore and protect.

So I hope we can do similar sorts of things together. The AFP has been working with engineers, road builders, and well drillers, as the Philippine Sea Bees, in Jolo and places elsewhere in the archipelago. And we’re hoping we can spread that sort of model. We’re not going to do another Balikatan, I don’t think, in Jolo. People have asked us. But I hope we can, in some ways, lend military resources, and efficiency and organization to some of the work that USAID is already doing with your Department of Social Welfare, with your Armed Forces, in some of these really deeply troubled areas as Jolo as has been.

Q: (Gabby Tabunar) Is there a rough economic and military-social blueprint that you have for Mindanao? It seems to me that your emphasis gives us the sense that that island is the center of these and other development projects.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: It’s a fair question. No, we don’t have a blueprint. The blueprint will emerge from the people of the Philippines – whether the people are in Mindanao or in Luzon. I have spent some time in the Visayas and Luzon – not quite as much, deliberately. We have concentrated USAID attention where the most poverty is and where the worst conflict has been, and that’s why – that’s the only reason that we spent most of our development assistance money there, why we’ve done most of our military training there, although we’ve done more of that in the north, too. And that’s why I’ve spent a little bit more of my time there, a little bit disproportionately. I’ve gone to the north, but not as frequently or as intensely as the south.

Q: (Charmaine DeGracias, NHK) Can you give us some assessment of the counter-terrorism efforts against the Abu Sayyaf? Because if we have driven them away from Basilan, they have gone to Metro Manila and the threat has not really diminished. So, an assessment of the anti-terrorism campaign, courtesy of the new type of cooperation has gone?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: We’re miles and miles and miles ahead of where we were on September 11 or when President Arroyo and President Bush took office. Probably because there’s a consciousness now, not only within the Philippines or within the United States, but globally, among all civilized countries about what we’re facing together. In some countries there are more internal roots to the terrorism. In many of our countries, the terrorism is fed inspirationally, at the very least, across borders, but then often with arms and with money that travel across borders. We didn’t have a good sense of how true that was, I think, before we started paying attention to each other again in 2001. Now we have a much better sense, and we are doing something about it -- not only in the military area that I mentioned, not only in law enforcement as I mentioned, but also in the longer-term investments in strengthening democracy and the rule of law in the Philippines. And I would say really for our two countries. This investment in education has been a big priority for us since President Bush visited in 2003. I do an awful lot of events that focus on education – not just Mindanao, but education in Mindanao. As I said, there’ll be two more this afternoon.

I think with all of that we’ve seen an area that felt neglected and that didn’t have much investment in the human capital, much less the non-human infrastructure. In the past several years, the people there feel prouder of themselves, feel a little more in control of their fate, don’t feel they have to listen to maniacs and madmen who claim that they have word from God that they should go out and kill people for the Faith. Instead they’re starting to listen to their wiser and more well-schooled religious teachers, and they are seeing that people from Manila, and people from the United States of America, and people from Japan can in fact share important interests with them and we can work together to build communities and make people freer and stronger. And with that, geography – just a map – you know like those old World War II movies where you saw the black cloud of Nazism spreading over Europe and the Japanese spreading over the Pacific. And then slowly, slowly, you saw in those old war movies, the areas pushing the black part back as the Allied forces came in. Well I think you can draw a map like that in Mindanao in the Philippines.

There are fewer places where, if you were from the Abu Sayyaf, you can brag about that and strut in the street, and not have someone turn you in. We’re getting much better intelligence. I say, we – the Philippines, and we, and all countries working together. The communities there don’t want these killers anymore. So why do you think it is the Armed Forces of the Philippines is getting so lucky these days? It’s because the communities don’t want those bad guys there, and they are tipping off the police and the Armed Forces. And we’re spreading the Rewards for Justice Program to try to add additional incentives, and you have a witness protection program. So people who were before frightened – remember, schoolteachers used to be murdered; they said the Abu Sayyaf cut off schoolteachers heads -- now, schoolteachers and parents are not living in as much fear as they used to. And in Basilan, if there are Abu Sayyaf people hiding out, they don’t go strutting around the towns anymore. They’re hiding out deep, deep in the jungles and staying away from communities. And it’s happening more and more in mainland Mindanao, and it’s happening, I think, in Tawi-Tawi, and even in Sulu.

We’ve got a few fanatical people who don’t get it. But I mentioned some names of people there. I deliberately mentioned people I know to be rivals, who are nonetheless working to heal the sick, to educate their kids, and they don’t welcome the bad guys. So, we can reach a tipping point. It’s not done. Success is not guaranteed. Change is inevitable. Progress is not. But there has been progress. And I think – I can’t tell until after, you know, in terms of history, if you look back – at some point it’s possible I’ll be looking at some year, 2003 maybe, as having reached a tipping point, where people in Mindanao decided that terrorism is not the future. We’re still willing to wait for the MILF, the whole MILF, to make up their mind.

Q: (Charmaine DeGracias, NHK) Ambassador, just a follow up. Do you think the stronger alliance between the Philippines and the U.S. is responsible for JI fusion with the Muslim militants in the south? Because the JI presence only became clear when the relations with the U.S. became stronger. Do you feel responsible for that?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: No, I don’t feel responsible for that. I feel we’ve all learned a lot more about what has going on in the world, about how people who were radicalized and dis-educated in their faith in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia or Egypt – it has kind of spread a virus. It spread to Southeast Asia. That was happening in the 80s, and it grew and developed in the 90s. It didn’t just happen overnight. It didn’t happen since 9/11. And the virus spread in different ways. It’s like a doctor diagnosing a patient, and you look back and you find out there was a condition or the disease process had begun years before, and only now we are starting to combat it with a battery of medicines. Different things. And the medicine includes physical therapy. There’s no magic pill to get rid of it. You got to do some long, hard physical conditioning that could take years. But I think we’ve begun all of that, and the patient is starting to get better. We still could lose the patient. You know, the patient decides he doesn’t want to do the physical therapy, doesn’t want to swallow this disgusting medicine. Then you could lose the patient. But I don’t think the patient wants to die, and I don’t the doctors in Manila want the patient want to die.

Q: (Cecil Morella, Agence France Presse): Mr. Ambassador, I noticed you mentioned NGOs and General Garcia, but you didn’t mention the Mayor of Cotabato City?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: He’s in town. The Mayor of Cotabato City, if I’m not mistaken, was to be in town today at a seminar sponsored by the United States of America that I’ll be going to later. It’s a seminar on democracy and Islam in the Philippines, which we support and I hope the Mayor supports. And we’re continuing all kinds of USAID projects in Cotabato City.

Q: I think there was an issue a few weeks before that somebody accused the Mayor of diverting USAID to terrorist groups. And there’s also a study by the Philippine military that some of the foreign aid to the Philippines might be getting to the communists by way of the NGOs. And I was wondering as well if the case General Garcia involves the theft or diversion of U.S. military aid to the Philippines?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Well, that’s a lot of questions. The last one first – that’s easy: No. As far as I know, as I understand the legal charges against General Garcia, they have nothing to do with diversion of U.S. assistance to the Philippines. I have colleagues here who are from our Justice Department or from the military – is that correct?

COLONEL VELASCO: Yes

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: So, no, there’s no tie-in. We’re very confident that U.S. military assistance to the Philippines is just going to the soldiers as intended. We have systems in place, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we think, takes that very seriously, and we do too, and we work together, so that’s not a problem.

On the question of assistance from NGOs going to the New People’s Army, who are an internationally recognized outlaw terrorist group – at least the Europeans and we recognize them as such – I don’t have information about that. I don’t believe certainly any American NGOs assistance is going there. If they are, they are in violation of U.S. law. The most important operational consequence of being on the U.S. foreign terrorist organization list is that you are forbidden, if you are an NGO in the United States, from providing financing to foreign terrorist organizations. So if there is an NGO in the U.S. doing this, please give me the evidence, and we’ll take them to court, and they won’t do it anymore. I don’t know how it’s working among the Europeans, I don’t know if they enforce any such thing.

And – I’m sorry; the first part was on Mayor Sema?

Q: Yes.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: As far as I know, we have no quarrel. Certainly the United States has not accused the Mayor of anything. We have not accused the Mayor of anything. We have worked with the Mayor consistently over many years. We have good conversations; very frank and cordial ones – usually cordial, always frank – and we do talk about our concerns. You know, Cotabato is the gateway to the heartland of Muslim Mindanao. There are different ones. There is Marawi, which is a traditional center and an important one. And Cotabato is another one. It could be a jewel of a city because it’s a nice mix of all the different tribes -- Christians as well as Muslims, and the Maguindanaoans and other all come together there. So it’s really a gateway. And what we would like to do, through all our USAID projects there, is to see it become a gateway for investment. And I know the Mayor wants that too, a gateway not just for foreign investment but also for Filipino investment, and to see travelers come and go, business people, scholars – because there are some institutions of higher learning – someday even, who knows, maybe even tourists. It’s a beautiful country down there. The problem is, it is still a doorway, or can be, for those people who are training to plant bombs on railways, and buses and ships in Manila, in Davao, in Cotabato City itself, and for that matter, to get on the airplanes to my country.

It’s a tough thing to grapple with. I think the Mayor is grappling with it, and we wish him success, because he has got to succeed in keeping tabs on people who go through there. When Americans run around down there, everybody knows who we are. When Japanese are running around down there, when Australians are running around down there, we register; the authorities know who we are. We have to explain what we’re spending our money on; it has to be approved by people at the national level and the local level. We want the mayor to know, and we want to make sure we’re fitting the mayor’s priorities. And we hope that’s true of everybody. But if they are coming from, you know, Indonesia or certain places in other countries, and they’re not investing in schools and mosques, and orphanages, and palm oil plantations, but instead in investing in bombs and training bombers, then we all have a problem. That’s the kind of conversation we have. That’s not an accusation. That’s to say we have a shared interest, and want to pursue that shared interest.

Q: (inaudible)

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’m not saying the mayor is providing it. I said, Cotabato City, physically, where it is. It is an important center. It’s a center for good, for investment, for growth, even for political leadership as the capital of the ARMM. And it will do all those good things all the more successfully if is not at the same time a stop in the underground railway to the Liguasan marsh or Mt. Kararao.

Q: (Tess Cerojano from the Associated Press) During the visit of Mr. Zoellick there was some suggestion that particular commanders within the MILF be tagged as terrorists? Is this being seriously considered by the U.S.?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: We have serious questions – as I said every time I’ve met with the members of FOCAP – about the MILF. We were delighted to read from all of you that there was a successful meeting in Kuala Lumpur last month where the Government of the Philippines and some MILF leaders got together and discussed some of the really tough issues that been out there between the two sides. We think that’s a great thing, and we congratulate the government of Malaysia for hosting the talks. We congratulate the parties to this conflict for advancing the discussion. We wish them well. But we still wonder: how can it be that some people who call themselves the MILF are talking peace and development and peace agreements and all of these on the one hand; and on the other hand, evidently some elements of the MILF are, at a minimum, tolerating – and we think doing more than tolerating – cooperating with world-class murderers. We are talking about people who are involved in the Bali bombing, and who are proud of it. Proud of it! Who are trying to train people in the techniques for detonating bombs in crowded places. You know, others getting the Abu Sayyaf into more sophisticated ways of murdering. And the Abu Sayyaf stand accused, officially, in your courts, of the Super Ferry bombing here a year and half ago, a year something ago. Just think if those people learn more effectively how to set up bombs by remote control. That sort of training camp, the imported materials and the knowledge, and the motivations, the teaching of murder, teaching people that somehow jihad means not the struggle within the soul, not to struggle to convince – the word ‘convince’ is big in Arabic, (Arabic word), ‘to persuade,’ – but instead to murder people, that’s perverted. That’s sick. It’s wrong in Islam, it’s wrong in any religion. And there are pieces of the MILF that somehow think that’s right. If we are able to push forward the identification of those people, and in some way make it harder for them to travel internationally, and to move money back and forth, then I think we’d like to do that. We don’t want to harm the peace process. On the contrary, we want to support it. If the MILF really does want to fight for peace and development in a legitimate way, without using murder, and kidnappings, bombs, we’d love to be partners, if they would like to be partners.

But I still come out where I started. I don’t know who is the real MILF.

Q: (Tess Cerojano of the AP) So, Mr. Ambassador, the answer is yes, you are considering putting a terrorist tag on particular personalities within the MILF?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: In conversations with the Government of the Philippines, we are trying to identify who are those people who are supporting visitors from the Jemaah Islamiyah, who are supporting Khadaffy Janjalani. Identify them, and what do we do about them? What can we do, as foreigners, to help the Government of the Philippines bring those people to justice? Now, if some of those people turned out to be also part of the MILF, you know that would be a sad besmirching, from my perspective, of the MILF’s identity. I don’t know if the MILF regards that as besmirching, or if they are proud of these people. I haven’t had that conversation directly with anybody in the MILF.

Q: What hard evidence have you got that there are members of the MILF that are actually supporting this? What real hard evidence have you got? Because you’re saying that you’d like to get the names and track them down, stop them from coming. But where is the hard evidence?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: It’s a matter of rather widespread knowledge in those towns and communities where they are there. I go back to a point I made earlier. Why do you think it is that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is coming closer and closer to getting Khadaffy Janjalani and some of these people? It’s because they know not only who the people are who are doing these things, but also people in the nearby communities are getting tired of having them around. This reporting is going on. For the protection of sources and methods, I cannot say, “Oh, it’s Mr. So-and-So who last week pointed a finger at someone.” But we’re getting a level of reporting that is really quite inspirational, and we keep splitting the distance to the target in half. And one of these days, we’re going to make the leap from halfway there to ground zero and get that target. The Armed Forces of the Philippines will get that target. And we’re doing what we can at the outside to help. We’re contributing to the Rewards for Justice campaign. We’re supporting the Philippines government’s own Rewards for Justice campaign. Those things are working. The bad guys know these are not the ‘golden years’ of freedom for bombers and kidnappers in Mindanao. They may still get off some attacks here and there. It could happen. I’m not saying everything is now safe from these evil people, but it’s getting… Think of that World War II old-fashioned movie map again. All that big, black area where they could work before is now smaller squares, smaller circles, and they’re getting squeezed. And our interest is in seeing those little squares squeezed to nothing and the bad guys go away somewhere, or be brought to justice one way or another, or get out of the country.

MODERATOR: Yes, Charmaine.

Q: There have been reports recently about destabilization plots against the Arroyo government and you have been maliciously linked – having been sought by somebody, and can you really tell us about that meeting with Ambassador Seneres, and how did you tell the President about it?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’m not going to talk about meetings with any individual Filipinos because we do protect confidences. As to how people find out with whom I meet and all that, I meet very openly with people and I don’t meet clandestinely or in the dead of night. If people do accuse us – if I, or one of my diplomats, one of my colleagues, meets with a member of the opposition, people sometimes boast about that and they will sometimes suggest that we’re supporting them or whatever it is. Whenever we meet with people, we make clear what the policy of the United States is. We support Philippines democracy. Whether in the opposition, whether in the government. That’s what we support. I’ve said publicly, I’ve said privately to people: if you’re coming to us and you want to know what the attitude of the United States would be toward political change -- we’re for it. We think change is an important thing in any living, breathing, dynamic, political system. The nice thing about democracy – ugly and messy and inefficient and painful and strident as it can sometimes -- be in my country as well as yours – is that it has built-in processes for change. They are legal processes. You’ve got a constitution here. It was ratified in 1987. A lot of people are frustrated with some of the tenets of the constitution. People are talking about changing it. The constitution contains within it provisions for change. Constitutions are made deliberately difficult to change. That’s the way they are. That’s the way ours is. That’s the way yours is. But the processes are there. And if people are frustrated enough and angry enough about the problems in this country that they feel the change has to come about, you’ve got options. None of them are easy. But the worst option I can imagine and the only one we, the United States of America, would actively and strenuously oppose -- is extra legal ones: violent overthrow, extra-legal overthrow of the government. That, we think, would weaken this country. You’re our friends. We don’t want to see this country weakened. You went through a great national election in 2004, and you’re going to have elections again in 2007 -- assuming you stay with the same constitution. If you choose to change your constitution between now and then, that’s fine. Do what you think is right. Meanwhile, you’ve got a leader that you chose through your processes. We, the United States of America, and every other country in the world recognize President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the lawfully, constitutionally elected leader of this great country of yours. If someone wants to change that, and you want the respect of the world, you’d better do it through your constitution. And that means, you don’t get a chance to do that again until – not 2007 in the President’s case, but that will be 2010. In 2007, you get to elect a whole new congress or most of a new Congress and Senate. In the meantime you’ve got other elections. You’ve got to be patient with democracy. You’ve got to work hard. It’s boring sometimes. There’s no quick fix. There’s no magic solution. When you get angry, you can’t just go and call a press conference and call for a revolution. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in modern countries.

Q: Has a government officially inquired about such a meeting? From you?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: You know, I’m sure the government -- this is the Philippines. Everybody knows everything in the Philippines. Through the media, outside the media, and I’m sure that nothing I do, no one I see, is really a secret from the government, if they want to know about it. I figure that my best protective coloration is to be as open and as transparent as I can be. So, I want to respect people’s confidences. I’m not going to give you a list of everybody I see. Or give a list to the government of everybody I see, but it’s pretty easy to figure out who I meet with.

Q: Looking back at your past three years as Ambassador here in the Philippines, what would you consider your biggest achievement and what would you consider your biggest disappointment?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: You know, I’d love to claim everything good that has happened as my achievements, but I can’t. Personally, I’ve certainly learned a lot. I’ve witnessed a lot -- put it that way. I would not take credit in any sense for my achievements. We’ve got a great team at the embassy, we’ve got, I think, strong leaders in both countries who have recognized the need to pay attention to each other’s countries, and have personally visited back and forth. I certainly have witnessed, I think, the revitalization of the relationship and the qualitative change in the relationship that I know the two presidents had hoped would mark their tenures. That, I guess, makes me the happiest. The relationship has improved and we’re getting away from the old patron-client model that was so discredited and so unhelpful to a partnership among equals. We listen to the Philippines. You set the priorities that you have. We set the priorities we have, and we lay them against each other and we find out they pretty much overlap. That’s that. Disappointment? On a substantive side, I guess, I would wish that we had seen more trade and investment happen. That might have been something we could have done more of, and there’s still a lot of headroom to grow our trade and investment, even though I’m delighted to see the Philippines trade expanding with everybody. I’d like to see a rising type of trade and investment strike across the board. Personally, as I mentioned, there are just a lot of places I’d like to have still visited here. In 39 months - and there’s all those mountains, all those reefs, small towns, wonderful people doing great things. I could sign up today for another three years in a heartbeat.

Q: Roel Landingin from Financial Times. I’m wondering about – you said you’re increasing USAID’s assistance – doubling it to $89 million this year. I’m wondering what the overall strategy is for USAID’s activities in the Philippines? What are the priorities, not only in terms of geographic area -- you’ve already discussed that, but in terms of the objectives that it seeks to support?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Good. Thank you. Those objectives have been consistent over the past several years with one addition. I thought I’d respond to your question on that – in terms of the things I’m proudest of. The addition, the new priority that has been added to the four or five that we’ve had, has been education. That’s been the proudest American legacy, I think, to the Philippines. There are all kinds of things in our history -- some are painful, most are not -- but the best of all, I think, speaking as a former schoolteacher and a Fulbright scholar myself, is education. The people here thirst for it and welcome it and have used it well. They’ve used the early 20 th century, mid 20 th century investment in education to make Filipinos branded -- sought after – as some of the best, most educated workers, whether caregivers or aircraft mechanics, in the world. And we see that as the key to unleashing the talents of these wonderful people into the future. However, there has been dis-investment in education over a couple of decades now, sadly. So, I would say among our very highest, and certainly our newest priority in our economic assistance programs has been education. Since President Bush came in October of 2003, that’s when we announced a $33 million dollar, 5-year program to raise teacher-training standards, to bring the internet to classrooms. Yes, we want to help with libraries and books, but we can vault over the laborious physical process of bringing books, which get stolen, to remote areas, and we can bring the Library of Congress to the remotest area of the Visayas or the Philippines through the internet. I’ve seen it. I’ve been to Tawi-Tawi and in Jolo and Upi, and seen these things. So that is one of the priorities. Others – we have Frank Donovan here, our Deputy USAID Mission Director -- we have projects in governance, anti-corruption, things where we’re helping Sonny Marcelo train up, raring- to-go prosecutors who have the spirit and the energy but don’t have the tool kit that they need to be successful prosecutors. So all kinds of governance issues: e-government, e-procurement, to make it harder for bad guys to take their 5%, 10%, 20% cut -- whatever it is. We have health projects: family, maternal and child health projects, public health projects, which include promoting family planning through the wide range of choice that are all appropriate choices to people depending on what their religion tells them is right. Environment, where my wife Marie who is joining us today, started out: all these environmental programs. The other day, I was diving. It was actually labor, it was work; I did it on company time. I was visiting a coastal resources management project where I saw Filipino fishermen, not using cyanide and dynamite, but using careful nets that allowed them to catch aquarium fish and then they set up a processing chain to get those aquarium fish – 99 out a hundred of them alive – tracked, like UPS tracks anything you might send -- that given Nemo-type anemone fish all the way to a retail outlet in Perth or New York. So, USAID does environmental programs. Small-scale, medium-scale programs -- dozens of others: Frank, dozens of others, eh?

FRANK DONOVAN: Right, renewable energy…

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Ah! Renewable energy! How can I forget? Where we’ve worked on energizing all these barangays, not just in the ARMM, but also beyond. Wind energy, solar energy: to these places to which the grid doesn’t reach. We’re able to bring solar energy. It’s fantastic. Frank, what other things am I neglecting to highlight?

FRANK DONOVAN: Fighting TB.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Yes that falls within our public health programs. Those are all over the country. I focused on Mindanao, as you’ve noticed, but we’re doing these things from north to south.

MODERATOR: We have room for only three questions, so may I ask Mr. Stuart Grudgings of Reuters to please ask his question?

Q: Despite the fact that the Philippines has got a thriving democracy, there are something like 40 million people living in poverty and the situation hasn’t gotten much better in the time you’ve been here. Corruption is still pretty rife, and most independent studies say it isn’t getting much better. Given that, and political violence as you said as well against journalists and so on. Given that, will you be taking a message back to Washington that democracy isn’t enough in developing countries?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I don’t think Washington is oblivious to the needs of developing countries. I don’t think anyone says that if you have elections, everything will be fine. Freedom and democracy require development and strengthening of countries. The good thing about the Philippines is the depth of the values that Filipinos hold. There’s tenacity here, a passion for freedom. It’s a matter of building on that, to have things come out the right way. In sounding positive, it’s because I am positive. I believe this country can turn a corner. It’s not that I would ever suggest we should whitewash the problems here. But so many Filipinos - not many, a few - suggest to me, “Oh, we should try the Singapore model. We need a Lee Kuan Yew. We need a dictator. We need a strong man.” I’m not an expert. I haven’t lived here all these years. All I know of the Philippines is that you tried that. Philippines tried dictatorship. Not only did it not work, most people seem to think -- Filipinos that I respect, at least, seem to think that -- that made things worse when you tried a strongman. He was pretty good for a year or two, and then all of the problems of Philippines democracy got worse under Philippines dictatorship. So, Washington doesn’t need any messages about democracy being insufficient, or much less democracy being the problem. Democracy by itself is not the solution. It is a necessary condition. It is not a sufficient condition, I think, for human growth and development. By putting democracy forward as a U.S. foreign policy priority, I don’t think President Bush means to suggest that it’s a panacea. It’s simply necessary to release human energy and talents, and you got it here. Freedom and democracy are here so you’ve got one of the most necessary things. Let’s go beyond that to do the rest.

MODERATOR: The second to the last question…Manny?

Q: Good afternoon, Mr. Ambassador: Just a quick follow-up to the question of my colleague, involving the problem with Mayor Sema in Cotabato City. I think there was a project that was stopped by the U.S. government, a road project in his area. Can you please explain to us what’s the reason for stopping the project? Because in the past few weeks there were demonstrations in Cotabato City against the American government. Thank you.

A: There has been some misinformation out and I regret that. We have not stopped the project, in the sense of cancelled it for all time. That is one project among very many that we have suspended for a time. I hope we can, in fact, resume it because we do want to resolve some questions about the directions of Cotabato. I believe, as I said at the outset, Cotabato has been becoming a gateway for investment and trade and business of all legitimate sorts. But in recent months, we’ve also heard that it is being used as a doormat by some killers that I think Mayor Sema doesn’t really welcome. Nor do I think the people of Cotabato welcome. We need to get a better grip on that together. We need to understand what’s going on down there and make sure that these evil people cannot use Cotabato. Put it this way: We don’t want to build a road that these people will use to come in and out of Cotabato. We want to build a road that farmers and business people and truck drivers and tricycle drivers and taxi drivers will all use to get rich and prosper. We don’t want to build a road that’s going to make it easier for bombers to sneak in and out in the dead of night and elude the Armed Forces of the Philippines. And I’m pretty sure – if we’re not already on the same wavelength - we’re pretty close. That’s the story behind that road. It is not stopped. It is not cancelled. It’s suspended. We want to make sure we have the understanding we thought we had, and I still think we do have, with Mayor Sema.

MODERATOR: Last question.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, I am just curious: What about Alberto Romulo? You’ve never mentioned him in your list of personas that you think have done well for the Philippines. What about Secretary Alberto Romulo?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’ve mentioned him two or three times! He’ll be in Washington. He’s my good friend.

Q: Except for that. Is there anything in particular that you don’t like about his style?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: On the contrary, I love everything about his style. He’s a gentleman, an erudite and a wise man, and I’ve learned very much from him. He’s been very patient with me and taught me a lot. I knew I’d run a risk if I mentioned 15 or 20 or 30 people, and not mentioned the other hundred. I mentioned him because he is a good friend. He’s been very gracious.

Q: Actually, my question is, to follow up on the Muslim and Sema thing –

MODERATOR: I think you’ve asked your one question.

Q: That was just an introduction.

MODERATOR: I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but Ms. Charmaine is pleading Mr. Ambassador.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’m putty in Karen’s hands! I do whatever Karen Kelley tells me, so how are we doing?

KAREN KELLEY: Karen says it’s time.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Time? Charmaine will hate you if you don’t let her ask her question!

Q: Yeah. One last question.

KAREN KELLEY: Oh, yes, I wouldn’t want that to happen. Okay, one last, short question.

Q: What is the U.S. interest now in the South China Sea? Has that been changed by the cooperation between China, Vietnam and the Philippines? And I think during Mr. Zoellick’s visit he had been talking about an anti-piracy campaign in the Malacca? Is the plan to send a strike force still going to push through?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Our interests in the South China Sea are completely as they had been. We’d love to see it stay and become even more of a sea of peace, open to proper international exploitation, but also protection. As a scuba diver, I’m quite sensitive about the environment and I believe there are ways of exploiting natural resources in a way that is environmentally sensitive. I hope that with the apparent improvement of Chinese relations with nations in this region, we’ll see positive developments there, in terms of exploitation of resources whether on land or sea, and at the same time protection of the environment. So, that strikes me as a good thing. International strike force? I’ve not heard of a specific international strike force against piracy? Is that what you are referring to?

Q: In the Strait of Malacca.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I have observed, as our various military and police establishments get together to coordinate and see how we can cooperate on a very vexing problem of all these island nations with miles and miles of coastline and narrow international waters, mixed up with national waters, and pirates who are murderers -- they’re not just thieves but they kill people -- sneaking from one to the other and going across where there are weak reinforcements. There’s a very good conversation going on. And even more than a conversation, there’s a greater cooperation in terms of nitty-gritty details: making sure that we’re able to connect on radio frequencies that match from a Philippines ship to a Malaysian ship to an American ship to an aircraft that can help. I think over time that’s a bright spot, and you will see greater regional cooperation and the United States will be proud and glad to be a part of that. But I haven’t heard of a specific international strike force per se, like a UN strike force for the region or an ASEAN strike force. That could be some way off. I could be wrong, but I’ve not heard of that.

MODERATOR: We’d like to thank the Ambassador. It’s always a pleasure having the Ambassador here and we wish him all the best in his next and future assignments.

# #