Prime Minister Stephen Harper: The Philippines

Imelda Marcos Dept: That counts for a lot in the Philippines. It has been a sleepy hollow since long before Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were pushed from power in 1986 by Corazon Aquino s People Power revolution. As a consequence, few foreign leaders have bothered to stop by, according to Montreal Gazette. While most of the rest of Asia took off led by South Korea, Taiwan and China, followed by the equally export-driven tiger economies of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia the Philippines languished far behind. Its soap opera-like politics, too often populated by movie stars and crooks, has forever been rife with coup rumours, and scandal and corruption of every kind and mANILA What Prime Minister Stephen Harper brings to the Philippines on Friday is his presence. The Philippines only got added to Harper s Asian itinerary the first by a G8 leader in several years because Indonesia got fed up waiting to find out the details of the prime minister s plan to visit Jakarta. Nevertheless, Harper s visit to the Philippines, which provides Canada with more immigrants than any other group, comes at an opportune moment and is of considerable importance to his hosts. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.