For Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez, the 2023 APEC Summit in San Francisco is one of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s best trips.
“I think, was one of the best trips of the president because he had an opportunity to meet the 21 leaders from all over the world. And the priority has always been economic security for us,” Romualdez told ANC.
Romualdez said Marcos was also “on top of his game.”
“Everybody, I mean everybody, every world leader would like to meet up with him. or at least have a conversation with him,” he said.
“Some other countries like Peru and other other countries sort of gravitated towards him and tried to have a conversation with him. And this is what I mean by, you now have a world leader that is respected and they would very much like to have a meeting with him if possible,” he later added.
The ambassador said many leaders also indicated that they would like to visit the Philippines and to have a stronger relationship with the country.
Marcos himself had said that the APEC Summit was successful.
The President secured $672,300,000 worth of investment pledges from various sectors following his participation.
Asked for the timeline for the pledges, Romualdez these have been planned out. He said he also asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Board of Investments (BOI) about the matter.
“In fact, I told Secretary Pascual of the DTI and also the BOI to at least come out with some kind of scorecard,” he said. — Joahna Lei Casilao/RSJ, GMA Integrated News
