Two weeks from today, the Philippines and India will celebrate the exact date of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of RP-India diplomatic relations. We are happy to note that on Sunday, President Gloria Arroyo announced her issuance of Presidential Proclamation 1924 making November Philippines-India Friendship month.

The proclamation actually has a signature date of October 23, 2009. It names the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as the lead agency to organize the activities to fittingly celebrate 60 years of Philippine-Indian diplomatic ties and six decades of “strong partnership.” The proclamation urges such government agencies as the Department of Tourism, the Department of Science and Technology, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Philippine Postal Corporation, the University of the Philippines, and the city government of Manila to initiate programs and other activities for the month-long event.

Advanced celebration in May

On May 18, at the Grand Ballroom of the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati, the President gave a speech publicized as the presidential address celebrating the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the Philippines and India. The occasion was really the formal announcement that the old Indian Chamber of Commerce had been renamed Federation of Chambers of Commerce.

In that speech the President affirmed that aside from the diplomatic India and our country have embarked on “many kinds of relationships” that India’s Ambassador Mitter and the head of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce Ram Sitaldas had enumerated in the speeches they gave prior to that of the President.

Both India’s head of state (its president) and head of government (the prime minister) had been to the Philippines on separate visits and the President had gone on a state visit to India. She spoke of her visits to India during her youth and remarked—to hearty applause—that having seen India as a youth several times she has a witnessed the amazing transformation of India “into the fourth largest economy in the world” today.

Then she cited how the world looks to India and its companions in BRIC—Brazil, Russia and China—as emerging economic giants. And she mentioned India’s projected growth rate of 6 percent to 7 percent (which, despite the pessimistic forecasts of some economists who foresee a dip, may still turn out to be more than 7 percent at end of 2009).

Mrs. Arroyo concluded that speech with a call on “Filipinos and the Indian friends living in the Philippines” (many of whom have actually acquired Philippine citizenship), to “pull together” and “initiate a new era of volunteerism and community spirit.”

Some in the media have been making the mistake of saying that we are celebrating 60 years of Philippine-Indian relations. It is only our formal diplomatic relations that are 60 years old this month. But relations between Indians and us Filipinos—the Malay-Indonesian people with Chinese blood who came to be called Filipinos after our journey to nationhood began with Spanish colonization and conversion to Christianity—date back thousands of years. The evidence of this is that Filipino culture and languages have an important layer of Sanskrit and other Indian languages.

We Filipinos will do well to treasure our Indian heritage and friendship.