MADRID .- The president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal, announced on Monday, during the first day of his state visit to Spain, his commitment to the Spanish language again be a compulsory subject of study in schools of this Asian country . Macapagal expressed the commitment to promote the teaching and learning of Spanish during his speech, almost everything in this language, during his visit to the Senate.
The Spanish was removed from the education system in the Philippines in 1987 during the administration of President Corazon Aquino to the Constitution that was drafted after the fall of the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, which established as its official languages Tagalog and English.
More than 5,000 people are studying Spanish in the Philippines-half of them speak to diario-, the ninth most populous country in Asia with about 85 million people who for 350 years and until 1898 was a Spanish colony.
A measure 'extremely important'
The foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, at a press conference along with his Filipino counterpart, Alberto Romulo, said that the measure announced by Macapagal was "extremely important" and poses a "hope" for the Spanish returns to "very present" in the society of the archipelago.
Spain will work with the Philippine government to implement this plan with teacher training and the dispatch of scholarly material, as explained Moratinos. The minister highlighted the "excellent" relations between the two countries, established by the state visit of Macapagal, the first of a Filipino president in the past 45 years.
That friendship, according to Moratinos, has led to agreements such as the Convention on Sentenced Persons, ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, which will allow the Spanish Francisco Larrañaga fulfill his punishment in a prison in Spain.
Larrañaga, accused of kidnapping and killing two sisters in 1997, left death row in October 2006 after the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines.
Apretada agenda Macapagal
During his first day in Spain, Macapagal was received by the Kings and then visited the Senate, where its president, Javier Rojo, imposed the Medals of Congress and the Senate, and gave him a luxury edition of the Constitution of 1812.
After attending a rally of revulsion at the latest murder of ETA, the Philippine president gave a speech in which he expressed his solidarity in the fight against terrorism. He emphasized that the commitment to democracy and respect for human rights are "inherent values" to the identities of the two countries.
During the visit, Spain and the Philippines have signed several agreements on renewable energy, cooperation in education, tourism, fisheries and agriculture through their foreign ministers.
source: El español volverá a ser asignatura obligatoria en las aulas de Filipinas
The Spanish was removed from the education system in the Philippines in 1987 during the administration of President Corazon Aquino to the Constitution that was drafted after the fall of the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, which established as its official languages Tagalog and English.
More than 5,000 people are studying Spanish in the Philippines-half of them speak to diario-, the ninth most populous country in Asia with about 85 million people who for 350 years and until 1898 was a Spanish colony.
A measure 'extremely important'
The foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, at a press conference along with his Filipino counterpart, Alberto Romulo, said that the measure announced by Macapagal was "extremely important" and poses a "hope" for the Spanish returns to "very present" in the society of the archipelago.
Spain will work with the Philippine government to implement this plan with teacher training and the dispatch of scholarly material, as explained Moratinos. The minister highlighted the "excellent" relations between the two countries, established by the state visit of Macapagal, the first of a Filipino president in the past 45 years.
That friendship, according to Moratinos, has led to agreements such as the Convention on Sentenced Persons, ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, which will allow the Spanish Francisco Larrañaga fulfill his punishment in a prison in Spain.
Larrañaga, accused of kidnapping and killing two sisters in 1997, left death row in October 2006 after the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines.
Apretada agenda Macapagal
During his first day in Spain, Macapagal was received by the Kings and then visited the Senate, where its president, Javier Rojo, imposed the Medals of Congress and the Senate, and gave him a luxury edition of the Constitution of 1812.
After attending a rally of revulsion at the latest murder of ETA, the Philippine president gave a speech in which he expressed his solidarity in the fight against terrorism. He emphasized that the commitment to democracy and respect for human rights are "inherent values" to the identities of the two countries.
During the visit, Spain and the Philippines have signed several agreements on renewable energy, cooperation in education, tourism, fisheries and agriculture through their foreign ministers.
source: El español volverá a ser asignatura obligatoria en las aulas de Filipinas
