COMMUNICATIONS Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said President Aquino’s trip to Rome is expected to yield an expanded air- services agreement (ASA) with Italy.
The President will discuss strengthening bilateral relations between the Philippines and Italy, Coloma said in Filipino.
Mr. Aquino flew with a Philippine delegation on Sunday on a three-leg mission first to France and later on Italy. It would be in the latter country where President Aquino is expected to meet Pope Francis on a visit to the Vatican.
In his departure speech at the Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Aquino said he will have separate meetings with French leader FranÇois Hollande and Pope Francis, whom he hosted in Manila recently.
During the first leg, Coloma confirmed that Mr. Aquino will preside over the Climate Vulnerable Forum at the Paris climate talks among leaders of 195 nations in the 21st meeting of what is called the Conference of Parties (COP21).
“As chairperson of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the President’s main focus is to build common ground for concerted action among similarly situated countries in strengthening disaster resiliency and enhancing capability in implementing climate-change adaptation and mitigation measures,” Coloma told the BusinessMirror.
Speaking in Filipino, Mr. Aquino said he intends to share the Philippine experience in coping with disasters that hit the country, as well as its “travails and recovery from severe calamities.”
At the COP21 Forum, Mr. Aquino added that he intends to speak for other countries most affected by “increasingly frequent and more damaging disasters associated with climate change.”
He also cited earlier efforts in Copenhagen to convince countries to adopt measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emission levels, even as he admitted that the conference failed to forge a firm consensus, and instead passed on the task to the Paris conference on UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Mr. Aquino voiced satisfaction with Hollande’s support for the Philippines’s initiatives, when the French leader visited Manila in February and joined him in the Manila call to Action on Climate Change.
According to Coloma, the President is set to reaffirm Philippine commitments to enforce a 70-percent reduction in carbon emissions by year 2030.
In Italy Coloma said President Aquino would also discuss the Mindanao peace process and agriculture.
On the ASA point, Coloma said President Aquino is expected to expand the deal to open direct commercial flights between Manila and Rome.
The latter agendum comes more than two years after the Philippines and Italy held air-services consultations in Rome in September 2013, according to the Philippine Embassy in Italy.
According to the embassy, “Both sides discussed and initialed the Philippines-Italy ASA and signed a shared memorandum of understanding.”
The ASA allows Philippine air carriers to fly directly to Italy (Rome, Milan, Bergamo and another point) and Italian air carriers to fly directly to the Philippines (Manila, Cebu, Clark and another point), the embassy said.
According to the Philippine Embassy in Italy, the last bilateral agreement on air-services was concluded and signed in 1969, and Philippine Airlines last flew to Italy in 1994.
“The ASA is expected benefit some 170,000 Filipinos and their families who work and reside in Italy, among other overseas Filipino workers based in Europe, by affording them the option to take direct flights back home, help boost tourism and encourage increased business travel between the Philippines and Italy.”
According to Coloma, Mr. Aquino will meet with President Sergio Mattarella at the Italian leader’s private residence, and later hold a dialogue with select members of the Filipino community.