Historical relationship

After the Chilean Independence Bernardo O'Higgins believed that newly independent American countries would be permanently under threat of a Spanish reconquest unless they were expelled from Manila, thus promoting the liberation of the Philippines This initiative would be carried out through the "Liberating Squad" or "Liberating Fleet", which Chile built in order to liberate Peru under the command of Admiral Lord Cochrane. Later, due to the constant threat of a British attack on Buenos Aires, Argentina, this initiative was canceled. But the geopolitical vision of O'Higgins remained active through the idea of establishing a liberated zone of the Sea between the Americas of the Pacific (with headquarters in Valparaíso, Lima and Guayaquil) and Manila. In this area, the Chilean fleet would guarantee free trade, a highly esteemed objective during that time.

It is also important to note that with the triumph of the patriotic forces in Chile, between 1817 and 1820, the country saw the definitive opening of foreign trade. As Supreme Director of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins decreed the opening of all Chilean ports to international trade, through the Foreign Free Trade Law of 1817.

In 1819 General O'Higgins assembled 19 of Chile's richest and most influential merchants in order to create a fleet to establish trade with Manila, Southeast Asia, China, and India. Through this initiative, a British brig named "Carmen" was commissioned, along with three other ships purchased in Singapore, thus establishing the first maritime transport company that gave rise to such trade known as, "Calcutta Company".

In 1844-1845 the Government of Chile opened three honorary consulates in Asia - Canton, Hong Kong and Manila, in order to support and promote national products such as copper, nitrates and wheat exports to the Asian continent.

In the field of ideas and visions there are also similarities between prominent Chilean liberals and freemasons such as Francisco Bilbao and Sebastián Arcos with the ideas of renowned intellectuals, in particular José Rizal. Unfortunately, we do not yet know if there was ever direct contact or epistolary exchange between both groups, which in both cases responded to the clamor of the times led by the new ideas that were in vogue in Spain and Europe.

In 1946, through the total transfer of power and sovereignty to the new Government of the Republic of the Philippines, Chile was one of the 22 countries that were direct witnesses to the birth of the Republic, officially recognizing the new State. Our country was represented at that time by Juan Marín, Consul General of Chile in Shanghai. In the 1960s, Chile appointed concurrent Ambassadors to the Philippines from Tokyo and in 1967 the first resident diplomatic mission opened its doors in Manila.

This unbroken relationship of almost 200 years, which began in Chile's early stages as an independent country, has achieved important milestones in its development and has become a firm foundation for strengthening bilateral relations in the future. Chile and the Philippines have been strong allies through different international forums, especially in the construction of the San Francisco Charter of the United Nations, being constant promoters of democracy and freedom. More recently, an important proof of the friendship of the Philippines was the support given to Chile to be part of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. Chile, in recognition of the generous efforts made by the former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, Mr. Roberto Rómulo, awarded him the "Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit" of Chile in 1999.

Our country actively participates in interregional forums and firmly promotes the initiative of the "Latin American Pacific Arc Forum", a regional platform for political dialogue, as well as a coordination mechanism established in 2007 to promote our region in the Asia Pacific and in this way achieve the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Latin America, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand.

In the last 20 years, nine bilateral agreements have been concluded that have contributed to the improvement of the various areas that make up the bilateral relationship, some of them: Memorandum of Understanding on Agriculture, Phytosanitary Agreement for the Regulation of Imports of Fruits, Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, Cultural Agreement, Cooperation Agreement in Mining Matters, Memorandum of Understanding between universities through the "Inglés Abre Puertas" program of the Ministry of Education of Chile, aimed at courses to improve English in the Philippines for Chilean students, among others.

The Philippines and Chile share a common challenge within the Asia-Pacific Community: to strengthen cooperation, the expansion of free trade, reciprocal investments, the creation of regional networks, and strategic alliances between public and private counterparts or associations between productive sectors oriented towards third markets. Only through this process it is possible to discover, create and develop new bilateral initiatives, some of which are already in their initial stages, such as in the area of renewable energies through the official installation in Chile, in 2010, from the first Philippine company, Energy Development Corporation (EDC), in order to project itself as an active actor in geothermal research and development in Chile. 

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