The just concluded official visit in Washington of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) was a resounding success without a doubt. The five-day stay in Washington D.C. of PBBM was capped by his tete-a-tete with his counterpart, American President Joe Biden at the White House. The two leaders first had talks at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York they both attended in October last year.
This was the second time that PBBM made an official trip to the United States (US) in less than a year apart since he assumed office. It took though almost six years before our country’s ambassador to Washington Babes Romualdez was able to make a Philippine President walk the aisles at the White House.
Romualdez, who also writes a column for The Star, deserves credit to his unrelenting efforts to bring back the essence of the Philippine alliance with America in this part of the world. First appointed as ambassador to the US in July 2017, Romualdez could not to pin down the self-proclaimed anti-American ex-President Rodrigo Duterte to visit the US during his administration.
Another feather to the cap of PBBM in his US visit was being able to bring the heads of the biggest conglomerates in the Philippines as part of his private sector businessmen delegation. They included, namely, Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp.; Sabin Aboitiz of the Aboitiz Group; Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala of Ayala Corp.; Enrique “Ricky” Razon of International Container Terminal Services Inc.; Lance Gokongwei of the Gokongwei Group; Kevin Tan of the Alliance Global Inc.; and, Tessie Sy-Coson of the ShoeMart Group. They all flew to Washington and attended PBBM’s meetings with American and other multinational investors’ forum organized during the course of his US visit.
In his Facebook account, Tan dubbed their group the “Magnificent Seven.” He and his colleagues have been working closely as part of Malacañang’s Private Sector Advisory Council that PBBM regularly consults and convenes at Malacañang Palace. Except for Razon, most of them are the younger faces and the next generation of the former taipans and tycoons who joined the past state visits and official trips abroad of former Presidents.
From the US, PBBM along with his wife, First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos flew next to London over the weekend for the coronation rites of British monarch King Charles III. From the United Kingdom, PBBM will proceed to Jakarta, Indonesia as the host of this year’s Leaders’ Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
As usual, included in the official entourage were presidential first cousin, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez; and, presidential first-born son, House deputy majority leader, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos. They are the same people who accompanied PBBM in many of his past nine presidential trips.
Actually, the Speaker was already in Washington days ahead of PBBM. The Speaker was joined there by Pampanga Congresswoman Arroyo who is concurrently Senior Deputy Speaker; Pampanga Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. and Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco (married to a presidential maternal cousin) also joined him in Washington.
“The Speaker and several House members have been in the US since mid-April to lay the groundwork for the official visit…,” according to the official Twitter account of the House of Representatives.
Not any of the Senators joined though the US trip. “I was invited but I declined as I was in New Zealand and got back the day PBBM left. I’m not sure with the other Senators,” Senate president Juan Miguel Zubiri told us during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last week. While both chambers of the 19th Congress were still in recess, Zubiri and other lawmakers either went abroad on official missions or for private “family” trips. Zubiri flew back a week to Manila before the Senate resumed its sessions starting today.
Neophyte Sen. Mark Villar, as chairman of the Senate committee on trade and industry, sort of became the official representative of the Senate in all the past presidential state visits abroad. On the other hand, presidential eldest sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on foreign relations, once joined PBBM on his first state visit to Beijing last Jan. 3 to 5 this year.
Zubiri first joined PBBM in his state visit to Japan in February when he initially met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. In his second Tokyo visit on April 6, Zubiri disclosed, he raised to Kishida the need to explore a Philippines-Japan Visiting Forces Agreement “to act with greater urgency” to support a possible Reciprocal Access Agreement that will boost the inter-operability of the armed forces. According to Zubiri, Kishida also plans to make a reciprocal visit to the Philippines. Thus, Zubiri disclosed, he extended an invitation for the Japanese Prime Minister to address a joint session of the Philippine Congress.
Zubiri was invited in November last year to head a Philippine parliamentary delegation to meet up with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet. With ten Senators in tow, Zubiri returned to Japan last month.
Zubiri, however, quickly doused loose talks claiming the Senators’ trip to Japan – or junket as his critics called it – was a “loyalty check” amid rumors of ouster bid against the Senate chief. “No such thing as ‘loyalty check.’ I never lead that way. I’m a consultative leader and if they say I should step aside then I shall step aside. I always say I’m only as good as my Team,” the Senate chief swore.
The invitation, he explained, was open to all Senators. “... And not just a handful of favorite traveling partners,” the Senate chief added.
Incidentally, Zubiri is again leaving this Friday on official business to fly to Cambodia as the president of the Philippine Escrima Kali Arnis Federation. An arnis practioner, Zubiri will cheer for the 16-men Philippine arnis team competing in the ongoing 32nd SEA Games.
“Di lang pang-pamilya, pang-sports pa,” to quote a popular commercial jingle.