Asia Expats Forum

joojoo · Novice Joined: 23 Dec 2006 Posts: 30 Location:

Lorenzo G. Abellera, Dec 13, 2006
MANILA -- Leaders from both the local government and the delegation of the San Francisco-Manila Sister City Commission (SFMSCC) expect stronger ties between the cities as the five-day cultural and trade mission of the SFMSCC to Manila drew to a close.

“The essence [of the SFMSCC], … is to create relationships. There are no quantifiable track lines or timelines. What is important is people are able to meet and trust each other, and from those personal relationships involve many things — business ventures, cultural connections, and the like. The exponential multiplication of the efforts is mind-boggling,” said SFMSCC chairman Dennis Normandy.

President Arroyo receives the nine millionth book donation from San Francisco-based Books for the Barrios. Also in the photo are Nancy and Daniel Harrington, President, and Chairman, respectively, of Books for the Barrios.

The delegates of the commission was in the country last week for a cultural and trade mission, bringing in 138 participants with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on the lead. The delegation was composed of a full tapestry of San Francisco experience, counting among them artists, members of non-government organizations, leaders from the private sector, entrepreneurs, among others. Normandy said this is the biggest delegation that the Sister City Commission has sent overseas.

The mission was carried on as a response to the invitation by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when she met with Newsom during her visit in San Francisco in 2004. Newsom acknowledged at the delegation briefing held last October that this visit would deepen the close friendship and the historical ties between San Francisco and the city of Manila.

Throughout its five-day mission to the country, the commission has accomplished, among other things, a signing of a memorandum of understanding between the San Francisco City College (SFCC) and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM). This is expected to create new challenges between students and faculty of the two institutions; develop joint English language, professional development curricula, and training in the hospitality industry; and create a plan to render a feasibility study to consider the establishment of an extension campus of SFCC at the PLM specializing in nursing and allied health services, biotechnology, life sciences, and computer education.

Newsom also signed a memorandum of agreement with the city government of Manila for cultural and technological exchanges and established agreements to jointly address literacy, public health, commerce, and tourism.

SFMSC delegates pose with president Gloria Arroyo and Mayor Newsom during the dinner hosted at the Malacananang Palace.

“I’d like to have a stronger, more vibrant relationship between San Francisco and Manila, because our cities could really gain from a very strong relationship — cultural, business exchange, considering that San Francisco is one of the favorites of the Filipinos as seen on the big Filipino community there. There’s a natural symbiotic relationship. It’s just a matter of strengthening it further with more activities. In the person of Mayor Newsom, it should not be difficult. We have periodic exchanges but more than that, I really think we can do more in forging a mutually beneficial relationship,” Manila Mayor Lito Atienza told Philippine News.

“The Sister-City Partnership further strengthens the relationship between the City and County of San Francisco and Manila,” said Newsom in a statement. “The exchange of cultures and technologies enhance our city’s commitment to diversity, while providing a unique and invaluable platform to discuss and trade best practices in several areas.”

The delegation also brought a total of 280 wheelchairs, 100 of which were donated to the city government of Manila, the other 100 to the V. Luna Memorial Hospital, and the remaining 80 to the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons.

President Arroyo also presented the Presidential Citation Posthumous Award to Newsom at his courtesy call to the president at the Malacanang Palace for his grandfather, Technical Sergeant Arthur Lidell Menzies of the United States Army, “for the sacrifices he made in defending the Philippines while assigned to an artillery battery on Corregidor” during World War II.

Meanwhile, President Arroyo received from the mayor the nine millionth book donation by San Francisco-based non-profit organization Books for the Barrios, who has been donating books to the country since 1981.

“San Francisco is one who has maintained strong ties to Asia. We are a gateway city, who was the first to establish the first and largest Chinatown in the US. We are also proud to have established other Asian districts within the city. San Francisco’s success is in its diversity. San Francisco’s success is in its very recognition that we are all in this together, our focus on our interesting differences, and most importantly the things that bind us together, That’s our strength, that’s our moral, ethical strength, but also the economic strength of San Francisco and the entire bay region,” Newsom said before guests and delegates at a luncheon meeting.

San Francisco and Manila have been twinned under the Sister City program since 1961 to promote goodwill and cross-cultural understanding. Other sister cities of San Francisco include Abijan, The Ivory Coast; Assisi, Italy; Cork, Ireland; Haifa, Israel; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Osaka, Japan; Paris, France; Seoul, Korea; Shanghai, China; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Thessaloniki, Greece; and Zürich, Switzerland.