The Philippines, RI Celebrate 60 Years Of Friendly Ties

Jakarta - Close neighbors Indonesia and the Philippines will this year celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The relations between the two countries have remained conspicuously devoid of any major issue of discord during the last 60 years, says the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia.

“We have had many years of friendly relations with Indonesia, even before we established official diplomatic relations,” Ambassador Vidal Erfe Querol, who submitted his letter of credence to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sept. 5, 2007, told The Jakarta Post during a recent interview at his residence in Jakarta.

“We were one of the first countries to recognize Indonesia when it declared its independence in August 1945. Since then, our relations have remained problem-free.”

Ambassador Querol, a former police director, is a personal friend of President Yudhoyono`s. Both studied together at the US Army Command and General Staff College in Kansas, US, from 1990 to 1991.

To commemorate the historic event, the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta and Indonesian Embassy in Manila have been organizing several programs throughout the year.

“We will celebrate this event in traditional and non-traditional ways throughout the year. We have already organized a musical concert and hosted a health camp with the help of our Philippine corporations,” Querol said.

According to Querol, Indonesia and the Philippines, who are strong proponents of regional cooperation and the founders of ASEAN, have many things in common.

“(Both Indonesia and the Philippines) are the beacons of democracy and we cherish the institutions of freedom, democracy, free press and peace,” Querol said.

Not only that, Querol continued, but Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim-majority country and the Philippines predominantly a Catholic-majority country.

“Both are the bulwarks of two major civilizations and faiths in the region,” Querol said.

All these commonalities and the compatibility of longer-term national, regional and geopolitical interests between the two biggest Southeast Asian nations have contributed immensely to the growing solid and close partnership.

“We have a lot of cooperation in so many areas, ranging from the economic sector and education, to defense and counterterrorism,” Querol said.

Bilateral trade in 2008 surged to US$2.80 billion, an increase of 26.91 percent from the $2.21 billion posted in 2007. Trade has actually doubled in the last five years, up from just $1.12 billion in 2003.

Though bilateral trade has been growing constantly, it still is not commensurate with the real potential of both countries. At the same time, Querol has another problem to deal with.

“The balance of trade has always been in favor of Indonesia. With 240 million people, Indonesia is a huge market. So my main mission is to improve our economic ties, especially our exports to Indonesia,” Querol said.

The Philippines exports mainly spare parts for machinery and automobiles, electronic integrated circuits, diary products, fruit, aviation fuel and chemicals to Indonesia, and imports copper, coal, natural gas, textiles, processed food products and wood products from there.

Querol said there are 11 Philippine companies are operating in Indonesia and 18 Indonesian companies, including big players like Indofood and Ciputra, with businesses in the Philippines.

In an effort to further strengthen relations, both Indonesia and the Philippines have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint commission meeting. The first meeting was held in 1995. Since then, leaders and officials from both countries have been meeting regularly under this platform.

Among all forms of cooperation in various fields between the two countries, counterterrorism forms an important area of bilateral defense cooperation.

Both countries, Querol said, have suffered from decades of insurgency and both are the victims of terrorism.

“Both of us fully realize that terrorism is not limited one country but it has become a transnational crime. That`s why we have agreed to strengthen security cooperation to fight terrorism by intensifying joint naval patrols along the border and intelligence information sharing.

“We have made some great progress in this,” Querol said.

Indonesia, he added, had helped the Philippines reach a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996. For its part, Manila also sent a monitoring team to Aceh when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) reached a peace agreement with the Indonesian government in 2005.

“We help each other in times of difficulties,” Querol said.

Being the biggest Muslim- and Catholic-majority states, both Indonesia and the Philippines, Querol said, worked together in the area of interfaith dialogue.

“Both the Philippines and Indonesia at the UN pushed for a summit on interfaith dialogue. We work closely,” Querol said.

In the field of education, both countries of late have been exchanging teachers and students to know more about each other.

“We are glad about this program. It`s going well,” Querol said, adding several hundred Indonesian students were studying at major Philippine universities and institutions.

“Now we have a direct flight between Manila and Jakarta and vice versa. It makes it easy for Indonesian students who want to study in the Philippines,” Querol said.

There are some 15,000 Filipinos, mostly teachers, managers, accountants and other professionals, living in Indonesia.

“These people have high-end jobs. The most important contribution of the Filipino community in Indonesia is in the field of education: they teach English to Indonesians,” Querol said, adding more than 25,000 Indonesians, mostly fishermen, farmers, students and businesspeople, lived in the Philippines.

When asked about challenges in performing his duties as a non-career diplomat in Indonesia, Querol said it was easy.

“I don`t face any problems here. It`s easy. Moreover, by living in Jakarta, I miss nothing in Manila,” Querol said. Veeramalla Anjaiah

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com (12 June 2009)
Photo: http://www.chizmiz.net

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