THE LOOP — Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III's first visit to Chicago Wednesday was received warmly by the mayor, business leaders and parts of the Filipino American community.
“Chicago is the most immigrant-friendly city in the United States and I am deeply proud of our vibrant Filipino community,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
Aquino, known popularly as Noynoy or PNoy, addressed a standing-room-only audience in Filipino at the JW Marriott grand ballroom Wednesday night. He opened with thanks to Chicago members of the Philippine Dental Association for sending personnel to assist in rehabilitation efforts after Typhoon Haiyan — called Yolanda in the Philippines — in 2013.
"In their visits to communities devastated by Typhoon Yolanda, many were taken care of, and speeded their return to normal life," Aquino said.
"Even though you live overseas, you remain mindful of our countrymen's well-being, and for that, I and the rest of the country sincerely thank you."
The president also thanked the community for the "overwhelming absentee votes" cast by Chicago Filipinos of dual citizenship in the last presidential election, which he said were instrumental to his election in 2010.
Aquino addressed topics pertinent to a minority community made of equal parts immigrants and U.S.-born members. He lauded the Philippine government's improvements in remittance and customs security, graft and corruption monitoring and the country's high economic growth — the highest since 1955.
"We are investment-rate status currently. From 2010 to 2014, our GDP gained 6.3 percent. This is the country's highest economic growth rate in 40 years," Aquino said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the president heard from members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. ASEAN Business Council and the National Center for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation about their experience doing business in the Philippines.
Business executives from across the country met Aquino and his cabinet at the TransUnion Headquarters to discuss opportunities in infrastructure, transportation, mining, agriculture and technology.
The U.S. is the Philippines' third-largest trading partner.
While cordial, many in the audience said the president skipped key points, such as China's controversial claim to the Spratly Islands, a group of pristine shoals west of the Philippines in the South China Sea.
"We should have been updated tonight about the status, and the short-term and long-term policy of the Philippines regarding this invasion of the Scarborough Shoals," said Marlon Pecson, calling the island group by its other name.
A small group of protesters with the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns-Midwest and AnakBayan Chicago demonstrated outside the hotel over several key points not mentioned at the meeting, among them the temporary reprieve granted by the Indonesian president Joko Widodo for migrant worker Mary Jane Veloso, convicted of drug trafficking there.
Some said Aquino's choice to address the audience in Filipino — without a translator — isolated non-Filipinos, which included officials from the Field Museum, host to a large collection of indigenous Philippine artifacts gathered a century ago when the Philippines was a colony of the U.S.
"There should have at least been a projector with translation," said Lakhi Siap, a delegate to the 2015 Filipino American Youth Leadership Program run by the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C.
At the beginning of his speech, Aquino acknowledged that many points could be lost due to the language barrier, but that he is accustomed to addressing his countrymen in Filipino.
He said: "We cannot solve all our problems within one presidential term. We cannot be content with all that we've accomplished and return to the way we were. The future of the Philippines lies in Filipino hands. It started in 1986, in 2010, and in 2016. Let's not return to the corrupt system of the past."
Despite the criticism, the feeling in the room was generally warm.
"I think every president with only one term would want to have a really good legacy for them," the evening's emcee, lawyer Aurora Abella-Austriaco, said.
"I think he puts the Philippines above his own [interests]. He's the president that's selfless, he really cares about the people, he really cares about the Philippines, and all the things that he's done to move the Philippines — investment-grade, financial stability, financial reform, reduced corruption — I think those are all great things," Austriaco said.
The meeting was opened by speeches from Cuisia, Calonge, and a 30-minute acoustic set by musician Noel Cabangon, who helped Aquino campaign for the presidency in 2010.
Aquino travels next to Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver from May 7-9 to meet with businesses and Filipino communities there.
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