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By Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd, Executive
Editor
Despite the ongoing conflict in Mindanao and the
murder of an American volunteer in northern Philippines last year,
the US Peace Corps remains positive about the country, its director
said Thursday.
Director Ronald Tschetter said the Peace Corps
has a 47-year history in the Philippines, which has hosted the most
number of its volunteers.
“I’m here to say, ‘Thank you,’” he
told a small group of journalists, including representatives from
The Manila Times.
Tschetter met with President Gloria Arroyo on
Wednesday and was scheduled to meet with Foreign Affairs Secretary
Alberto Romulo on Thursday. The director will also visit the
American volunteers before he leaves on the weekend.
More than 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers have
served in the Philippines, since the program started in 1961, he
said.
“That is the largest group of volunteers that
have served in any country in the world,” Tschetter said, adding
that this is significantly larger than the next-closest country,
which hosted about 5,500.
There was a time when the Peace Corps suspended
operations in the Philippines—between 1990 and 1992, because of
communist threats.
Also, the Peace Corps has no presence in
Mindanao now, but is practically everywhere else in the Philippines,
Tschetter said.
But the program has had volunteers in Mindanao
before, the last time in 2003, according to an official at the US
Embassy in Manila.
Tschetter said that the April 2007 murder of
Julia Campbell in Ifugao province “has not affected our opinion
and our presence here in the Philippines.”
“It was a personal loss,” he noted, but it
had no long-term impact, “other than the fact that we certainly do
miss Julia.”
“Those are circumstances that happen,
unfortunately,” said the director, who explained that safety and
security is a very important issue for the Peace Corps around the
world. “[But] we cannot protect them from everything.”
Juan Duntogan confessed to killing Campbell, but
claimed it was not premeditated. He was later tried in court, found
guilty of murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
Robust program
The program is robust, according to Tschetter,
who was a Peace Corps volunteer with his wife in India in the 1960s.
“We are at a 37-year high in the number of
volunteers that are serving in the field today,” he said, adding
that more than 8,000 are serving in 74 countries.
The program was created after then US President
John F. Kennedy spoke to students at the University of Michigan,
challenging them to serve America.
So far, about 190,000 volunteers have answered
Kennedy’s challenge, serving in 139 countries since the program
began.
Tschetter said the Peace Corps mission has not
changed since the beginning – that is, to go to a country with
some technical skill, bring the “face of America” abroad, and
“bring back to America the face of the place we served in.”
“Clearly, there are more volunteers that are
bringing back to America the face of the Philippines than any other
country in the world,” he added.
Tschetter said that volunteer satisfaction in
the Philippines is very high. Volunteers like serving here
“because of the warmth of the people.”
“I think that stands out.”
Two-year commitment
Volunteers serve for about two years, receiving
only an allowance. But afterwards, they are given $6,000, which they
can spend on anything they want.
To join the corps, the applicant must be a US
citizen and at least 18 years old. There is no upper age limit.
The oldest volunteer is 85, and the director
said there is an 81-year-old woman who is training to serve in the
Philippines. If she completes the training, she will officially
become a Peace Corps member in November.
Tschetter said that shortly after getting
married, he and his wife were challenged by the corps’ advertising
pitch, which said, “It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love.”
He added that he was not disappointed.
He said the friendships he made when he served
in India still lasts today, and not a week goes by without him
exchanging e-mail messages with his old friends.
Sonia Derencourt, the Peace Corps country
director in Manila, was also a volunteer.
She chose the corps over medical school, she
said, adding that she was sent to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania
in northwest Africa, living there for nearly two years.
Like Tschetter, Derencourt said the Peace Corps
was a life-changing experience – including the part where their
group of volunteers were evacuated back to the US in 1991 when the
Gulf War broke out.
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