Sister Cities can mean a variety of things, and frequently it is simply a social connection between two cities, that have discovered common ground in their population and development. The second week in February, Manila greeted a large 104-person delegation from its sister city, San Francisco.

Founded in 1961, the San Francisco/Manila Sister City committees mandate is to serve as a cultural and economic link between the two cities, presenting the best of San Francisco to the Philippines, and in turn showcasing the best of the Philippines to the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Francisco committee is under the office of the mayor, and former Mayor Willie Brown led the delegation, which included educators, artists, and businessmen who have ties to the Philippines. Philippine Consul General to San Francisco, Marciano Paynor flew in ahead to greet them at the airport.

At one of the dinners in their honor, hosted by the Rafael Hechanovas and Concepcion Industries, I was fortunate to be seated next to the energetic San Francisco Civil Service Commissioner, and chairman of the Twin Cities Committee, Dennis Normandy, a Filipino-American who grew up in Manila. Between table-hopping to greet his many friends, Commissioner Normandy told me they had already inked two new agreements. One is for the restoration and preservation of Intramuros, which was signed by Mr. John Hurd, Director of the Global Heritage Fund and Tourism Secretary Ace Durano. They also gave $10,000 to the University of the City of Manila, which lies adjacent to Intramuros, for studies in conservation.

Their master plan is to make Intramuros a living historical city, along the lines of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, where visitors view people dressed in costumes of the period and living as they did at that time. Students from the university who have trained in preservation and conservation can graduate to jobs in Intramuros. Williamsburg uses students from William and Mary College.

The second agreement was a trade agreement between Concepcion Industries and the Infrastructure Development Group for joint ventures in renewable energy, clean water and waste management projects.

When they called upon President Arroyo, they presented her the twelve millionth book, from their Books for Barrios program, which ships a carton of books to Manila each week, that school children and educators in the Bay area collect for students in the Philippines.

The San Francisco area has always been a favorite place for Filipinos to settle and some Manilans maintain homes there. Commissioner Normandy recalled that when the UN was founded in San Francisco, in 1945, Carlos Romulo wanted their headquarters to be in San Francisco, facing Asia, a hope that was dashed when the Rockefeller family offered land along the East River in New York.