13 March 2015 - Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Raul S. Hernandez called on South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa on March 10 as part of a series of meetings with top South Korean government officials to bolster bilateral relations.
Ambassador Hernandez expressed gratitude to Speaker Chung for making time for the meeting, adding that it reflects the high regard leading South Korean officials have toward the Philippines as a “brother nation”.
Preceded only by President Park Geun-hye in terms of seniority, Assemblyman Chung will soon be making his first visit to the Philippines as speaker of South Korea’s 300-seat unicameral parliament, a position he assumed at the start of the 19th National Assembly on May 30, 2014.
During the call, Ambassador Hernandez and Speaker Chung discussed several topics crucial to Philippine-South Korea relations, such political and security cooperation, South Korea’s deployment of troops to help rehabilitate and reconstruct areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, Filipino marriage migrants, the safety of South Koreans in the Philippines, and regional issues.
Referring to the Philippines’ own help to South Korea in its hour of need during the Korean War (1950-1953), Speaker Chung light heartedly remarked that the yearlong deployment of the Republic of Korea Military Joint Support Group, more popularly known as the Araw Contingent, to Leyte until December 2014 was South Korea’s attempt to repay its debt to the Filipino people, “with interest”.
Speaker Chung, who has represented two Busan districts through five terms in the National Assembly since 1996, is expected to call on senior officials of the government of the Philippines, including Senate President Franklin M.Drilon and House of Representatives Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr. during the visit to the Philippines that is expected to take place this month.
Ambassador Hernandez called the visit of Speaker Chung “timely” as the Philippines and South Korea recently marked the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, which occurred on March 03, 1949. END