This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 06 MANILA 005357 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, IO/UNP, DRL/IRF, S/CT, G/TIP 
DEPT PASS TO AID:CDOWNEY 
NSC FOR H. MORROW 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2015 
TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM ECON EAID RP UNSC APEC
SUBJECT: EAP DAS JOHN LEADS NOVEMBER 11 BILATERAL 
DISCUSSIONS WITH GRP 
 
REF: A. MANILA 5331 
     ¶B. MANILA 5329 
     ¶C. MANILA 5328 
     ¶D. MANILA 5317 
     ¶E. MANILA 5276 
     ¶F. USUN NEW YORK 1996 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Paul W. Jones for 
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  EAP DAS John and Charge held extensive 
discussions on bilateral issues with DFA A/S for American 
Affairs Abadilla and Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Del 
Rosario on November 11.  DAS John underscored that the 
primary purpose of his visit to the Philippines was to focus 
on substantive issues on both sides' bilateral agendas.  The 
two sides agreed on the importance of continued cooperation 
in the counterterrorism area and in APEC.  The GRP side 
presented a proposal for a USG-GRP "Enhanced Bilateral 
Cooperation Framework," and reviewed earlier proposals by 
House Speaker De Venecia for a "debt for equity" plan and an 
international "Interfaith Dialogue."  The GRP side said it 
was committed to progress in countering human trafficking and 
expressed optimism on finalizing its Millennium Challenge 
Account (MCA) Threshold Plan soon.  The GRP side also 
described plans for commemorating the centennial anniversary 
of Philippine migration to the U.S. in 2006.  DAS John and 
Charge held a press event after the talks.  Text of the 
statement made by DAS John at the event is in para 13.  Text 
of a DFA press release regarding the discussions is in para 
¶14.  (Reftels review DAS John's meetings with President 
Arroyo, Foreign Secretary Romulo, and GRP Defense officials.) 
 End Summary. 
 
Overview 
-------- 
 
¶2.  (C) In discussions on November 11 in Manila with the 
Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (see list of 
participants in para 15), EAP DAS Eric G. John underscored 
that the primary purpose of his visit to the Philippines was 
to focus on substantive issues on both sides' bilateral 
agendas.  He noted that these were the kind of talks close 
allies hold, and said that he wanted to get away from a 
reactive, event-driven relationship so that both sides could 
focus on areas where they could achieve results.  DAS John 
added that we look forward to continued high-level 
discussions to advance our close cooperation on issues of 
mutual interest. 
 
New and old proposals 
--------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) GRP Ambassador to the U.S. Albert Del Rosario began 
by presenting a GRP proposal calling for a USG-GRP "Enhanced 
Bilateral Cooperation Framework" (text in para 7).  Del 
Rosario related that the proposal called for "focused" 
bilateral cooperation on three broad areas: defense and 
security, including law enforcement; socio-economic 
development in the Philippines; and cooperation on peace 
process and development issues involving Mindanao.  DAS John 
commented that the proposal was interesting and he promised 
to take the proposal back to Washington for further 
consideration. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Assistant Secretary of Foreign Affairs for American 
Affairs Ariel Abadilla and Del Rosario also shared two 
earlier proposals by House Speaker Jose De Venecia: the first 
involving a "debt-for-equity" plan for developing countries 
(ref F) and the second involving an international "Interfaith 
Dialogue," which would include a large conference to be held 
in Manila in January 2006.  Del Rosario commented that the 
dialogue could involve bringing together Shiite and Sunni 
Muslims in Iraq.  (Note:  At a November 11 dinner held in DAS 
John's honor, De Venecia personally reviewed these proposals 
at length and urged USG support.  End Note.) 
 
Counterterrorism 
---------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) Turning to counterterrorism issues, Abadilla quoted a 
recent Australian press report calling the Philippines the 
region's "weak link" in the fight against terrorism and asked 
whether the USG concurred with that view.  DAS John replied 
that the USG was generally quite pleased with the GRP's 
counterterrorism efforts but supported the passage of 
comprehensive counterterrorism legislation and urged the GRP 
to continue to apprehend more terrorists operating within its 
borders.  Charge added that improved coordination among the 
armed forces, the police, and other GRP elements was 
essential in the fight against terrorism.  Ambassador Del 
Rosario noted that the GRP greatly appreciated the 
counterterrorism assistance rendered by the USG to the GRP 
but that, up to now, most U.S. counterterrorism assistance 
had focused on Mindanao and Muslim militant groups.  He said 
that the GRP believes that counterterrorism cooperation 
should be expanded to address "the growing threat" posed by 
the Communist New People's Army (NPA). 
 
¶6. (C) Re the peace process, Abadilla said he expected talks 
with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to resume now 
that the Muslim holidays were coming to an end.  He thanked 
DAS Jones for USAID's continued support of the peace process. 
 Charge reiterated the U.S. commitment to supporting 
negotiations and the willingness to doing everything 
appropriate to help, including providing similar assistance 
to the MILF as was provided to the Moro National Liberation 
Front (MNLF), once a peace agreement is finalized and 
implemented.  He solicited the GRP's input on what further 
steps would be of most use in moving the talks forward. 
 
Millennium Challenge Account 
---------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) GRP officials described their preparations for the 
GRP's Millennium Challenge Account Threshold Program country 
plan and expressed optimism that the GRP would complete the 
plan soon.  They cited ten recent cases filed against corrupt 
government officials and a doubling of the cases filed 
against tax evaders as evidence of the GRP's seriousness in 
carrying through on its anti-corruption and fiscal reform 
proposals.  DAS John encouraged the GRP to think expansively 
regarding what types of assistance it needed under the 
program. 
 
APEC 
---- 
 
¶8.  (C) DAS John underscored the importance of several issues 
to be discussed at the upcoming APEC forum in Busan, Korea, 
such as the current Doha round of WTO talks, terrorism, and 
energy security.  He encouraged APEC economies to continue to 
reduce barriers to trade, to work with private energy 
companies in order to increase efficiency, and to diversify 
their energy portfolios.  Econ Counselor flagged that 
Philippine Airlines (PAL) was seeking to purchase additional 
long-range aircraft and pointed out that the Boeing 777 
(currently under consideration for purchase by PAL) was 20 
percent more fuel efficient than its Airbus rival (ref E). 
 
Trafficking in Persons 
---------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) DAS John urged the GRP to take stronger steps to 
address the problem of trafficking in persons, especially in 
the areas of prosecuting and convicting traffickers.  He 
flagged the December 3-6 visit of Ambassador John Miller of 
G/TIP as an opportunity for the GRP to demonstrate the 
actions it was taking to confront the problem.  The 
Philippine side stressed that the GRP took the issue 
seriously and reiterated that the matter was receiving 
high-level attention. 
 
Anniversary of Philippine Migration to U.S. 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (U) Del Rosario noted that the Governor of Hawaii 
planned to visit the Philippines in January 2006 to celebrate 
the centennial anniversary of the first migration of 
Filipinos to the U.S.  He added that the Smithsonian Museum 
was now preparing an exhibition on the matter.  DAS John 
commented that this was a very worthy project and promised 
that the USG would explore ways in which it could support the 
effort. 
 
Press Conference 
---------------- 
 
¶11.  (U) Following the afternoon session, DAS John and Charge 
held a press conference with national media.  DAS John read a 
statement about the discussions (text in para 13) and the DFA 
later issued its own press release (text in para 14).  (Note: 
 A full transcript of the press conference is available on 
Embassy Manila's web site at http://manila.usembassy.gov. 
End Note.) 
 
"Enhanced Bilateral Cooperation Framework" 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  Begin text: 
 
The Philippines and the United States: 
Towards an Enhanced Bilateral Cooperation Framework 
 
Recognizing the importance of their Alliance as a pillar of 
Asia-Pacific security, and of their traditional friendship as 
allied democracies in defending the security of their people, 
the Philippines and the United States will elaborate a 
Framework to enhance their bilateral cooperation in areas of 
priority mutual interest. 
 
This also is in keeping with the spirit of the ASEAN-US 
Enhanced Partnership.  The new Philippine-American 
cooperation Framework carries forward, on a bilateral level, 
key objectives of the ASEAN-US Enhanced Partnership. 
 
THE FRAMEWORK ACTION PLAN 
 
Under the Framework Action Plan, the Philippines and the 
United States will focus their cooperation on three major 
areas, namely: 
 
(1) Defense and security cooperation, including law 
enforcement, to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation and 
capabilities; 
 
(2) Socio-economic development cooperation in support of the 
Philippines' reform and anti-poverty agenda; and 
 
(3) Cooperation for the peace process and development in 
Mindanao. 
 
To deepen cooperation in each of these three areas, the 
Philippines and the United States will: 
 
DEFENSE AND SECURITY COOPERATION 
 
Launch a strategic dialogue at senior official-level to 
consult on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual 
concern. 
 
Advance cooperation to implement the Philippine Defense 
Reform Program (PDRP). 
 
Continue to focus on improving the mobility of Philippine 
security forces. 
 
Pursue a robust program of defense and security cooperation, 
including joint training exercises, military education, 
capacity-building for the AFP in surveillance, intelligence, 
reconnaissance, mobility, communications and humanitarian 
activities. 
 
Deepen law enforcement cooperation to improve counter-terror 
capabilities of the Philippine police and other law 
enforcement agencies to cover border security, customs, 
terrorist financing and money laundering, cyber-terrorism, 
transportation and ports security. 
 
SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION 
 
Revitalize the bilateral dialogue under the RP-US Trade and 
Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in order to address IPR 
and other bilateral issues, to expand Philippine access to 
the American market, and to increase American investment in 
the Philippines, especially in agriculture and natural 
resources, infrastructure development, information technology 
and housing, with appropriate assistance from OPIC, US 
Eximbank and US TDA. 
Continue with consultations on a bilateral RP-US Free Trade 
Agreement (FTA) and maintain a close dialogue on regional 
economic trends. 
 
Implement comprehensive cooperation to boost Philippine 
reform, development, counter-corruption and improved 
governance through programs of USAID, PL-480, the MCA and 
other US development assistance mechanisms. 
 
Carry forward with cooperation to facilitate and to reduce 
the transaction costs of overseas remittances through 
programs with USAID, the US Treasury, the US Federal Reserve 
and the US FDIC. 
 
Expand cooperation on socio-economic issues that have a 
strong transnational dimension, especially human trafficking, 
the environment, pandemic flu and other health concerns. 
 
COOPERATION FOR MINDANAO PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
Maintain robust support for the Mindanao peace process, where 
significant progress has been made in the GRP-MILF peace 
talks towards a possible peace agreement by early next year, 
through programs of USAID and USIP aimed at rebel returnee 
integration, community and livelihood development, conflict 
resolution management, public diplomacy for peace, and 
post-conflict recovery and rehabilitation. 
 
Promote a durable and long-term peace by expanding 
cooperation in education, interfaith dialogue and 
institutional capacity-building with special attention in the 
ARMM and Muslim communities in Mindanao. 
 
IMPLEMENTATION AND MEASURING PROGRESS 
 
The Philippines and the United States will identify and task 
their respective agencies that will be responsible for 
ensuring a focused implementation of the Framework Action 
Plan.  There will be regular consultations to monitor the 
progress of its implementation and of its results. 
 
End Text. 
 
¶13. (U) Text of opening statement by DAS John at press event 
held at Embassy on November 11, 2005: 
 
The reason I came to the Philippines today, a trip we have 
been planning for many weeks now, was to hold bilateral 
agenda talks. The bulk of my time was spent with the 
Department of Foreign Affairs and we focused on the many 
substantive issues this relationship covers. These are the 
types of talks that close allies hold. I was reminded, in 
fact, of that very close alliance and the nature of that 
alliance when I attended Veterans Day ceremonies today at 
both the American and Philippine veteran cemeteries. These 
veterans paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend and build the 
type of alliance that we have today and that we are keeping 
vital and important. 
 
The issues we covered today in our talks were Philippine 
Defense Reform Program (PDR), counter-terrorism cooperation, 
law enforcement cooperation, and more. We want to build 
enhanced cooperation in law enforcement and the U.S. is 
looking for ways to help and support the Republic of the 
Philippines transform its police, to deal with the types of 
threats that it faces today, which include trafficking, 
counter-terrorism, intellectual property rights violations, 
as well as to strengthen the links between police and 
prosecutors in the judicial system. 
 
We also looked at the Millennium Challenge Account. We see 
the MCA as an opportunity for the U.S. and the Philippines to 
work together on anti-corruption and building fiscal 
capacity. We talked about the Trade and Investment Framework 
Agreement (TIFA). We have in the Philippines one of the most 
dynamic TIFAs in the region. We have energetic discussions 
within the TIFA framework, and we use that to address such 
issues as Intellectual Property Rights enforcement. The 
Philippines reiterated its commitment to the TIFA today, as 
did we. 
Trafficking in persons is another area that we discussed. We 
looked at the cooperation that we have in anti-trafficking 
and the United States certainly noted the resolve of 
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the government here to 
deal resolutely with this very important issue. We looked at 
our cooperation in multilateral fora such as the United 
Nations, ASEAN, APEC, and the WTO. We discussed areas of 
common interests in all of those fora. 
 
We looked at senior level visits, and trying to get as many 
senior level visits on both sides is important for an 
alliance like this. In this regard, Secretary Cruz is 
visiting Washington next month at the invitation of Secretary 
Rumsfeld. This will be an excellent opportunity to talk about 
Philippines Defense Reform, counter-terrorism, and other 
defense related issues. We discussed Mindanao, the ongoing 
peace process there and U.S. interest, not only in terms of 
our support of the peace process, but U.S. interest - after 
an agreement is reached there - to provide appropriate 
assistance for that process. Finally, we looked at next 
year's centennial of the first Philippine migration to the 
United States and ways that we can commemorate that. 
 
I had the opportunity to talk about many of these issues with 
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo this afternoon, and the 
talks at both Malacanang and the DFA were very productive. 
The United States has every confidence in the Philippines as 
a very close partner in moving forward on these important 
issues. With this type of mutual cooperation, I see our 
alliance as one that is going to remain vital and continue to 
serve the interests of both of our nations and particularly 
the American people and the Filipino people. 
 
End Text. 
 
¶14.  (U) Text of DFA's press release on bilateral 
discussions, issued November 14, 2005: 
 
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE OFFICIAL CALLS ON PRESIDENT GLORIA 
MACAPAGAL-ARROYO 
 
11 November 2005 ) US Department of State Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Eric G. John 
 
SIPDIS 
called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today and 
reiterated the US Government's confidence in moving forward a 
more substantive agenda in RP-US relations.   John said the 
Philippines can expect more visits from U.S. senior-level 
officials in the months to come. 
 
"The discussion focused on many substantive issues; these are 
the types of talks that close allies hold" according to Mr. 
John.  He conveyed that the U.S. is keen in supporting the 
Philippines' implementation of priority programs, including 
the Philippine Defense Reform Program (PDRP), 
counter-terrorism measures, and economic and fiscal 
initiatives like the E-Vat and Millennium Challenge Account. 
 
President Arroyo discussed with Mr. John the Philippines, 
initiatives and progress not only in counter-terrorism but 
also in addressing the issues of Intellectual Property Rights 
(IPR) violations and human trafficking. In fact, the 
Presidential Spokesman reiterated yesterday that the Arroyo 
Administration's efforts to combat human trafficking have 
never wavered. 
 
Earlier in the day, Mr. John called on DFA Secretary Alberto 
¶G. Romulo and also discussed law enforcement cooperation, the 
Millennium Challenge Account, areas of common interest in the 
UN, ASEAN, APEC, and WTO, the Mindanao Peace Process and the 
commemoration of the Centennial of Filipino Migration to 
Hawaii.  Secretary Romulo expressed confidence in maintaining 
and strengthening RP-US alliance. "This continuing dialogue 
with US officials reaffirms our traditional friendship as 
allied democracies and paves the way in pursuing a more 
focused and strategic bilateral cooperation framework," 
Secretary Romulo explained. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
During the call on both Secretary Romulo and President 
Arroyo, Mr. John expressed regret on the alleged incident in 
Subic and assured the Philippine Government of US cooperation 
in pursuing the truth.  US Embassy Charge d'Affaires Paul 
Jones added that "the US Government will follow the spirit 
and letter of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)," and that 
"the focus on the case is in letting the investigation take 
its course." 
 
End Text. 
 
¶15.  (U)  Participants in the discussions included: 
 
U.S.: 
EAP DAS Eric G. John 
Charge d'Affaires Paul W. Jones 
Economic Counselor Robert P. Ludan 
Acting Political Counselor Joseph L. Novak 
Consular Officer Shawn Waddoups (Notetaker) 
Political Officer Timothy Cipullo (Notetaker) 
 
GRP: 
Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Albert Del Rosario 
DFA A/S Ariel Abadilla 
DFA Principal Assistant Leah Victoria Rodriguez 
DFA Special Assistant Maria Lourdes Montero 
DFA Director of U.S. Division Maria Josephina Ceballos 
DFA Americas Desk Officer Angelito Nayan 
DOF Undersecretary of Domestic Finance Gil Beltran 
DOF International Finance Group Chief Araceli Habaradas 
DOF Special Assistant to Finance Secretary Lea De Leon 
 
¶16.  (U) DAS John approved this message. 
 
Visit Embassy Manila's Classified SIPRNET website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/manila/index. cfm 
 
You can also access this site through the State 
Department's Classified SIPRNET website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/ 
 
Jones