JDV pushes for Asia-wide summit on rice, wheat crises

QUEZON CITY, Philippines - Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia urged on Tuesday that an Asia-wide summit be held to discuss the current rice and wheat crises that have been raising social tension in the region. De Venecia made the proposal in speech at at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Democracy, Development, and Free Trade which ended Tuesday. Also at the forum were Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, former US Defense Secretary William Cohen, European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pottering, former Netherlands Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, United Nations General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, and Qatar Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani. "In my view, regional groupings are the finest vehicles for global cooperation – if only because they can build up the measure of near-equality that bilateral negotiations between rich and poor countries cannot ever achieve," De Venecia told the forum. He added that under his debt-for-equity initiative, programs could be organized to finance rice, wheat, and food production, build irrigation and post-harvest facilities and fund programs that would fight drought and floods caused by climate change. "This debt-for-equity program the Philippines has proposed to the UN, to the rich countries, and to the international lending institutions," he said. "In December 2006, the General Assembly endorsed it unanimously as one of the acceptable 'innovative financing' initiatives. Now, Asia’s political parties, meeting in Islamabad late last month, have asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to bring the proposal before the G-8 and Paris Club creditor-countries." Interfaith dialogues He also pushed for interfaith dialogues among Christians and Muslims in Mindanao, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sudan, Somali, and Chechnya; Buddhists and Muslims in Southern Thailand; Christians and Muslims in Kashmir: Maoists and royalists in Nepal; and Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Overworked From Doha, De Venecia was scheduled Tuesday night to fly to Cape Town in South Africa to join the House of Representatives delegation to the 118th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, which runs from April 13 to 18. De Venecia delayed his departure for a day after staying for a day at the Hamad Medical Hospital because he was feeling overworked from his hectic schedule of speeches since two weeks ago. "I’m fine now. There’s nothing to worry about," De Venecia said in a call to his staff in Manila. De Venecia is accompanied by wife Gina de Venecia. Over the past two weeks, De Venecia had been in Islamabad to convene the ICAPP Standing Committee and, on his return to Manila, flew immediately to Seoul to address an assembly of the Universal Peace Federation. After returning to Manila, he flew to Doha to address the three-day forum on his way to the IPU General Assembly in South Africa. In Qatar, de Venecia met with the Qatari petroleum minister and some Cabinet officials of the Qatari government, and found time to meet with hundreds of Filipino overseas workers. "All these trips were paid for by the host government, in Islamabad by the Pakistani government and Senate, and in Seoul by the Korean parliament and the Universal Peace Federation," De Venecia said. "The only leg paid for by the House of Representatives is the IPU meeting – my flight from Qatar to South Africa and back to Qatar." - D’Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV