Marcos' foreign trips yield P294B investments – Palace

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s foreign trips this year yielded $5.28 billion or P294 billion worth of «actualized» investments or businesses, Malacañang said Wednesday.

Citing a statement from the Department of Trade and Industry-Board of Investments (DTI-BOI), Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said Marcos' foreign visits actualized $4.089 billion (P227.72 billion) investments for eight projects, $790.58 million (P44.02 billion) for 11 projects, and $398.17 million (P22.17 billion) for nine projects, as of December 21.

These investments are «not pledges but actual investments and/or businesses that have already come into the Philippines,» Garafil told The Manila Times.

Quoting DTI-BOI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo, she said the projects were already registered with investment promotion agencies such as the BOI and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

«Some of these projects have short gestation periods and are already fully operational and are already employing full-time Filipinos, producing goods or delivering services,» Rodolfo said in a statement.

«Some are already setting up or expanding their facilities — but are nevertheless already employing Filipinos as they already have set up or expanded their offices and physical presence in the Philippines,» he added.

Meanwhile, the DTI said that Filipinos have been offered more than 200,000 jobs because of the President's official foreign trips from the last quarter of 2022 until 2023.

Marcos' visit last year generated 7,100 job opportunities from Indonesia on September 4 to 6; 14,932 from Singapore on September 6 to 7; and 98,000 from New York on September 18 to 24.

Marcos also brought home 5,500 job opportunities from his visit to Thailand on November 16 to 19; 6,480 from his visit to Belgium on December 11 to 14; and 730 from the Netherlands on December 15 to 17 (a department investment mission).

For 2023, the DTI said that Marcos' visit to China from January 3 to 5 resulted in 32,722 employment; 24,000 job opportunities from his visit to Japan from February 8 to 12; 6,386 from his visit to Washington, D.C., on April 30 to May 4; and 8,365 from Malaysia on July 25 to 27.

The President's visit