President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) expressed hope today that South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak could visit the Philippines in March next year during the 60th anniversary of RP-South Korea diplomatic relations. At the same time, the President expressed her desire to also visit Seoul next year. In the meantime, some of PGMA's critics and detractors have started dishing out a new crop of jokes about the the First Couple and Filipino-Korean relations.

Some wags and pundits have referred to a MabuhayRadio.com article (written also by this author) about Koreans being responsible for the rice shortage in the Philippines. They cite this article Koreans and Canadians Blamed for Rice Crisis? Mr. Pimentel's Comment on Direct Selling of Gov't Rice

 
There is also a report that Korean businessmen in the Philippines have adopted an alias for the First Gentleman, who they identify supposedly as “S.A. Kim.” The initials stand allegedly for “Spouse of Arroyo, Kontact In Malacañang.”

 
Little-Korea Towns now proliferate in some Philippine cities, which lead some critics to complain that the visitors have launched their own version of a cultural coup d’etat that they dub satirically the “Korean BBQ-d’etat.”

 
And speaking of barbecues, Filipino pundits say that the kitchen at the Philippine presidential palace likes now to serve Korean BBQ and the ubiquitous kimchi (meaning allegedly as “Kim’s commissions hidden as investments”). Ergo, wags say that the Filipino idiom, “Lagay is my guy,” has been replaced by “Kimchi is my gulay.” If spelled as “gimchi,” it means among Koreans in the Philippines as “Gloria in Malacañang (gim) commission hidden as investments.”

Editor’s Note: Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. For more details, please go to: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi

The Republic of Korea is referred to as ROK and this leads to some wags saying that the new Korean-Philippine diplomatic and business ties are known as the “ROKO-ROKO” relations. Of course, they say the “ROKO-ROKO” ties favor Mr. SAKIM, oops, S. A. Kim.

 
In the same press release issued by the Office of the Press Secretary, President Arroyo said: “I hope during the anniversary of our diplomatic relations President Lee Myung-Bak would be able to visit us.” The President extended her invitation to the Korean President through Yu Myung Hwan, South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who paid a courtesy call on the President this afternoon at Malacañang’s Music Room.

 
The President and the South Korean minister, who was the former Republic of Korea (ROK) Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Philippines from March 2004 to August 2005, discussed a wide-range of issues that included increased trade and investments.

 
“It is a homecoming for you. Very many important things happened during your tour of duty here,” the President said.

 
During Minister Yu Myung Hwan’s tour of duty in the Philippines, the ROK ranked as the second largest source of foreign direct investments in 2004 with $1.4 billion fresh Korean investments brought into the country, Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto Romulo said.

Editor’s Note: Poet-pundit Fred Burce Bunao is urging his literary student, Bobby Reyes, to emulate again Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Mr. Bunao partly edited Reyes’s 1993 political novel, “One Day in the Life of a Filipino Sonovabitch,” (Excerpts from the Preface of Part I ) which was inspired by Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” Now Mr. Bunao wants Bobby Reyes to write a Filipino version of Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago.” Mr. Bunao suggests the title of “The Gulay Archipelago.”

He added that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction was signed on May 14, 2005, which translated to $1-billion investment in shipbuilding industry and made the Philippines the fourth largest shipbuilding yard in the world.

 
Secretary Romulo also said ROK supported the President’s 10-point pro-poor legacy agenda, particularly in the electrification, through KEPCO, of barangays nationwide.

 
The ROK also ranked as the country’s largest source of tourist arrivals, which reached 378,602 Korean tourists in 2004, a 25 percent increase from 303,867 in 2003.

Wags also say that PGMA should visit the former South Korean Presidents, who have been imprisoned for corruption. This would enable her to get to know first hand how a corrupt former Head of State fares in jail. Then PGMA’s state visit to Korea would be worth her while and the taxpayers’ money.

It was also during his tour of duty in the Philippines that the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labor and Employment and the Ministry of Labor of the ROK on the Sending of Workers to the ROK was signed on April 2004, and implemented in August 2004.

 
Minister Yu Myung-Hwan arrived this afternoon for a four-day official visit to the Philippines.

 
On his farewell call, then Ambassador Yu was awarded the Order of Sikatuna with the rank of Datu by the President in recognition of his efforts to deepen the two countries economic cooperation and advancing bilateral relations in general. # # #