PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. is set to leave for the United States next week to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit 2023 in California and visit the Indo-Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Charles Jose said in a briefing that the President, at the 30th APEC Leaders’ Meeting from November 15 to 17 in San Francisco, will push for clean energy to protect the environment, deeper cooperation in health and modernizing health systems, and cooperation in food security, among others.
“For this year, the President is keen to push for financing a just, sustainable and affordable energy transition through partnerships with the business sector. He will emphasize the need to invest more on clean energy to preserve and protect the environment while ensuring that we are energy secure and sufficient,” Jose said.
He said Marcos is also expected to highlight the Philippines’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and push for deeper cooperation in health and modernizing health systems, and to ensure that our health professionals are recognized and provided with the welfare they deserve.
“The President will also touch on digitalization and innovation given that digital transformation is already upon us and how we can best prepare our workforce and the larger human resource. Like in the previous year, the President will push for the digital participation of our MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). The President will continue to push for cooperation in food security particularly focusing on research and development, innovation and equity and inclusivity so as to benefit our small farmers and in climate action given the urgent need to be resilient to climate change,” he added.
Jose also said that on the sidelines of APEC, the President may have meetings but could not yet provide details given that “the schedules and logistical considerations keep evolving.”
He said Marcos would also meet with members of the US business community through the APEC CEO Summit, the APEC Leaders Dialogue with the APEC Business Advisory Council, and a Philippine economic briefing organized by the economic team.
There would also be one-on-one meetings with executives from top US companies, said Althea Karen Antonio, executive director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Foreign Trade Service Corps.
Jose said the President will meet with the Filipino community in San Francisco before he proceeds to Los Angeles on November 17, where he is also expected to meet with members of the business and Filipino communities.
Marcos is expected to be back in Manila on November 20.
In Hawaii, Marcos will meet with the Filipino community in Honolulu and visit the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for security studies, and the Indo-Pacific Command headquarters.
“It is already in the President’s program,” Jose said, adding that the Indo-Pacific Command invited the President.
Asked if the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including the dispute in the South China Sea, would be part of the agenda during the visit to Indo-Pacific Command, he said, “I don’t have all the details but I would imagine that would be part of the visit, there will be a security briefing.”
“It adds a layer to the cooperation that we are trying to establish with like-minded states in order to promote what we have been advocating all along — a rules-based order especially in the maritime areas,” Jose added, when pressed for the significance of the visit to the Indo-Pacific Command amid recent developments in the Asia Pacific region including the South China Sea.
The Marcos family was exiled to Hawaii in 1986 following the ouster of the President’s father and namesake, Ferdinand E. Marcos, through the People Power Revolution.
