US to help PH in post-typhoon rehab

MANILA - The United States will continue helping in the rehabilitation of areas battered by super typhoon "Yolanda", new US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg said Monday. Goldberg said he saw up close how Yolanda left Leyte in ruins. "I was in Tacloban and Palo on Thursday. I saw the destruction myself, but more importantly, the human suffering that has taken place and the lives that will have to be rebuilt. I had a chance to make the same kind of expression to President Aquino, that the United States will remain with the Philippines as you move from the relief period into reconstruction," he said. Goldberg also echoed Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario's sentiments, that relief efforts show the value of greater cooperation between Manila and Washington. Negotiations are ongoing for a framework agreement on increased rotational presence of US troops in the country. But Goldberg clarified the US is not out to set up bases here. ANC Dateline Philippines, December 2, 2013