PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said he will reduce the number of his foreign travels this year, adding the benefits of his trips abroad will be gauged by a return of investment.
“Yung mga biyahe, medyo babawasan na namin for the rest of the year (The trips, we will be reducing them for the rest of the year),” the President said in an interview with news anchors of different media networks.
He said the reduction in foreign trips is mean to “consolidate” all investment pledges from his past foreign trips and make follow-ups.
Marcos said the trips abroad were needed to reintroduce the Philippines to the world as well as to introduce himself to other world leaders for better communication in the future.
Marcos said he is the “new kid on the block” and he was not known to many people, while he had to re-introduce the Philippines as a viable investment hub as other nations look to Southeast Asia as a potential investment hub.
He recently said the Philippines has been included in the “VIP Club” along with Indonesia and Vietnam due to their strong economic performance.
The President was asked about the cost of his trips and the size of the delegations, to which he answered that the accounting is still being done.
Asked about the “gains” the Filipinos could expect from the eight foreign trips he had made since becoming President in June last year, he said the “measure of success will be, you know, cost-benefit, very simple. How much effort did you put into it? It’s not just the money. It’s the time that you put into it. It’s the time and the effort that goes into.”
He added that just one successfully signed memorandum of understanding is enough to make all the previous trips worth it.
“Let’s say we get actual, out of that one billion, bawing-bawi lahat ng eight trips. Finished. That’s the idea. And we did not only go to China. We went to Davos (Switzerland). We went to the EU (European Union), we went to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), we went to APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). So in each of those, many pledges were signed,” he said.
DELEGATIONS
Marcos said the official delegation in his trips includes himself, his staff and members of the Presidential Security Group, and the Cabinet members and their staff. He said he brings along the Cabinet members so they could directly explain issues or address concerns under programs or policies under their departments.
He said business and private delegations that join his trips handle their own arrangements and usually have their own schedules.
For this year, the President said he intends to cut down on his trips abroad. He said his confirmed trip so far is to the United States in November for the APEC Summit.
Preparations, however, are on the way for his state visit to Japan in February.
On the APEC Summit, Marcos said it is “one of those that a Philippine President should really attend because it is the relationship, essentially, between ASEAN, the Philippines, and the rest of the world.”
“Those are very very important relationships,” he added.
Marcos made six trips in 2022 and already had two foreign travels this year — a state visit to China from January 3 to 5 and his attendance to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland from January 15 to 21.
On the inclusion of his son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos to several of his travels and meetings, Marcos said his son was just doing his job and it is not in any way a part of efforts to groom him to be next president of the country.
