100ARAW.com

President Benigno S. Aquino III arrives in the United States Tuesday morning (Sept. 21, 6:00 pm in Manila) for his first  overseas trip as chief executive.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that Aquino’s US itinerary includes:

• A speech before United Nations General Assembly
• A meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
• Bilateral meetings with leaders of Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore
• Meetings with businessmen including those from Citibank and JP Morgan Chase
• An appearance at an event at Baruch College in New York with members of Filipino communities from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts

The DFA also said that with the Philippines appointed by former President George W. Bush as country coordinator, Aquino is also set to attend the second US-ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting.

After this meeting,  US President Barack Obama will join Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and Aquino in an international press conference.

In his departure statement, Aquino said that “we have embarked on this journey to send a message to the world, and particularly to one of our biggest trading partners, the United States of America: The Philippines is open for business.”

Critics of the President said that saying the country is open for business actually meant that Aquino is not offering any change from foreign investment-led, debt-ridden economic policies adopted by his predecessors and that have shackled local businesses.

Aquino’s trip to the US comes at the heels of the release of a partial report on the Aug. 23 hostage crisis in Manila, his suspension of trips to two member-states of the ASEAN and to Belgium.

Aquino lived in Boston, Massachusetts with his family in the early 1980s when his father, Benigno Aquino Jr., went into exile. Upon the latter’s return, he was killed on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport purportedly by soldiers on orders of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.