Our yearend report from the US

Since moving to Washington, DC, it has become a tradition for me to give a report to our Fil-Am community and potential US investors in the United States on what our embassy has done over the past year, specifically on developments in the state of our relationship with the United States.

We are pleased to report that in the beginning of 2023, we got off to a good start when we set the wheels in motion to organize the official visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to Washington, DC in May. It has been more than a decade since a sitting Philippine president visited Washington, and that in itself was already historic as it augured the revitalization of relations between the Philippines and the United States.

There is absolutely no doubt that the President’s visit to Washington was very productive, resulting in $1.3 billion worth of investment commitments from top US companies that could potentially generate as much as 6,700 new jobs for Filipinos. This is contrary to what the usual naysayers insinuate that the foreign trips of the President were unnecessary.

There is no question that the successful outcome of the President’s official visit to Washington, DC was also a consequence of his earlier trip to New York for the 77th UN General Assembly – his first trip to the West as President of the Philippines – where he had an opportunity to engage with business groups and top executives from various industries. More importantly, President Marcos and President Joe Biden had a bilateral meeting (on the sidelines of the UNGA), which was the first between the two countries after several years. It was also during that meeting that President Biden personally issued the invitation for PBBM to come to the US.

During his official visit to Washington, DC, President Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza were invited by the White House to stay at the Blair House, also known as The President’s Guest House, but PBBM politely declined, preferring instead to stay at a hotel.

It was a very nice gesture by the White House to allow the President to use the Blair House for meetings between him and his official delegation with American business executives and key US officials, mostly to discuss