NEW YORK CITY- President Benigno S. Aquino III is expected to arrive here today at the Teterboro Airport here from San Francisco at around 5:45 in the morning, where he will be welcomed by Philippine Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Libran S. Cabactulan and Philippine Consulate General Mario De Leon Jr.
The three-day working visit of President Aquino here will begin at Fordham University, where he will be conferred with honorary Doctor of Laws, like what his mother, former President Corazon C. Aquino received in 1986. The President will also check the step bearing the name of the former leader at the university’s Terrace of the Presidents.
The President will also meet some Filipino students here, who are members of the Fordham University Philippine-American Club.
“We’re all very excited as soon as we all got the news, we couldn’t believe that the president would be coming here, his presence at Fordham just echoes not even just the students but also the faculty. My economics professor is a Filipino and we are all so excited,” Janine Vicente, one of the Filipino students said.
The President Aquino will also meet with the top executives of three business process outsourcing companies based here, Convergys, IBM Corporation and Molex, for potential additional investments in the Philippines’ business process outsourcing sector.
OBAMA ENCOUNTER
On Tuesday, before the Philippine delegation proceeds to the much anticipated launching of the Open Government Partnership, President Aquino is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the Power of Open: Global Discussions, a multi-stakeholder, ministerial-level conversation on the role of openness in improving responsiveness, fostering accountability, creating efficiency and fighting corruption.
At the OGP launching, the President will be meeting with US President Barrack Obama and Federative Republic of Brazil President Dilma Rousseff, who are also the co-chairs of the new multilateral initiative for transparency and against corruption.
Though there will be no one-on-one meeting between President Aquino and President Obama, the two leaders will have a chance to talk at the sidelines of the OGP.
Following the launching here, President Aquino will meet with Norway’s foreign minister and deliver a speech at the Asia Society. (Chino S. Leyco)