Ottawa - The Canada-Philippines Parliamentary Friendship Group hosted a luncheon for visiting Undersecretary Evan Garcia and his delegation at the Parliament of Canada on 24 November 2014.

The Honourable Andrew Saxton, Member of Parliament from North Vancouver, British Columbia, concurrent Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, and co-Chair of the Friendship Group led other members in welcoming the Undersecretary who was accompanied by Ambassador Petronila Garcia, Deputy Director General Rolando Tungpalan of the National Economic Development Authority, and Eric Tamayo, Minister and Consul General of the Philippine Embassy.

Joining Mr. Andrew Saxton were other parliamentarians such as Mark Adler from York, Toronto, whose riding happens to have the largest concentration of Filipinos in any riding in Canada; and Randy Kamp, MP for Maple Ridge British Columbia who lived in the Philippines from 1985 to 1992 when he was regional director for the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) doing linguistic work among minority language groups in the country. He Honourable Deepak Obhrai, Parliament Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, also greeted .the Undersecretary and his party.

Mr. Saxton expressed his honor and pleasure at welcoming the Undersecretary noting that Filipinos now are the fastest growing community in Canada, and who are known for their high level of professionalism, and occupying important positions. Mr. Saxton informs that his riding holds the largest Filipino community national celebration in all of Western Canada. Mr. Saxton is a frequent visitor to the Philippines either on business or as a tourist. His recent visit was during the World Economic Forum in Manila in May where he also had the opportunity to confer with Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima.

Undersecretary Evan Garcia thanked Canada for its support for the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, and for taking care of Filipinos in Canada. The Undersecretary also noted that that the Philippines became a country of focus for development cooperation, recalling that Canada had been very active in the Philippines in the 1990s. He further noted that the Philippines has become an emerging priority market for Canada.

The Undersecretary conveyed that the Philippine government realizes that it must be more deliberate on its attempt at a rational and comprehensive reconstruction program, and would still need the help of friends on the investment side and on how to manage risks.

For his part, DOG Tungpalan noted the first year of anniversary of Haiyan and informed that the Philippine government is building back better, with progress being made on the ground, and logistic supply lines having been normalized. The government is working to manage expectations. Contrary to a perception of the slow pace of rebuilding, international organizafions such as International Care expressed amazement at how the Philippines is building faster than they have ever seen from any government compared to other disaster areas around the globe.

Undersecretary Garcia led the Philippine delegation to the 2nd Round of Meetings under the Joint Commission on Bilateral Consultations, as agreed upon by the two countries in 2012, covering various aspects of furthering relations covering security, economic and development cooperation issues. END