Philippine education minister invites Turks to open more schools in his country

Philippine Minister of Education Armin Altamirano Luistro (on the right)

Date posted: August 6, 2013

Philippine Minister of Education Armin Altamirano Luistro, attending a dinner organized by a Turkish foundation in Manila on Sunday evening, has invited more Turks to open new schools in his country.

A friendship dinner was organized by the Pacific Dialogue Foundation, a Turkish foundation, in Manila on Sunday evening. The dinner was attended by several prominent government officials, including Philippine Minister of Education Luistro, who praised Turkish schools, which offer high-quality education to Philippine students.

Speaking to the Cihan News Agency, Luistro said: “When I came here, our president told me, ‘Go there and reinforce our brotherhood [with Turkey].’ Our brotherhood was already reinforced with the Turkish schools in the Philippines, in particular in the Mindanao region. Please open Turkish schools in every region of the country. I am ready to do anything necessary for this.”

Sharing his feelings about the dinner, Luistro gave a message of intercultural dialogue. He said: “The speaker coming from Turkey, Dr. Ahmet Muharrem Atlığ, is an Islamic religious scholar. And I am a Christian scholar. We talked about the same things during our speeches. I suppose there are more than 400 attendees in this hall and I believe all of them think the same way as us. Then, what is the world fighting for? I want to thank my Turkish brothers, who remind us of the importance of love and peace.”

Speaking during the dinner, Dr. Atlığ, secretary-general of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), reminded the attendees of the well-respected Turkish intellectual and scholar Fethullah Gülen’s remarks: “Be so tolerant that your bosom becomes wide like the ocean. Become inspired with faith and love of human beings. Let there be no troubled souls to whom you do not offer a hand and about whom you remain unconcerned.” He added, “We are here to do just that.”

Among the other participants were Turkish Ambassador to the Philippines Hatice Pınar Işık, Philippine Armed Forces spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos, Philippine-Turkish Business Council Chairman Ernesto Chua, former Senator Nikki Coseteng and National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) Secretary Mehol K. Sadain.

Source: HizmetMovement.Com , August 6, 2013