Alter egos on the go to…

It was an act of statesmanship of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) to skip this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit in order to attend to more pressing domestic concerns at home. The APEC Leaders’ summit commenced yesterday and will culminate on Nov. 16 in Lima, Peru.

The Philippines, including the United States, is among the 12 founding members of the APEC in 1989. From then on, top leaders and officials from 21 APEC member-economies gather and each country takes a turn to host the summit meetings every year.

Presidential Communications Secretary Cesar Chavez announced last Thursday the Chief Executive will skip the APEC summit to prioritize his focus and energy on national concerns in the aftermath of recent disasters, “including government responses to calamities.”

Such a grand gesture deserves kudos, not skepticism or cynicism.

Malacañang further announced Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) acting Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque was designated as PBBM’s special envoy to the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week. Appointed acting DTI secretary last August, Roque concurrently holds this “special envoy” designation.

While PBBM’s stay-home decision is laudable, Roque’s add-on designation is on shaky grounds, to say the least. As a newly appointed Cabinet Secretary, she has yet to hurdle the confirmation process at the Commission on Appointments (CA). The 25-man bicameral body of Congress chaired by Senate President Francis Escudero did not pass any confirmation last week.

Malacañang forwarded the nomination of Roque, along with those of two other newly appointed Cabinet members, to the CA after the 19th Congress resumed sessions last Nov. 4. These are, namely, former Cavite governor Jonvic Remulla as acting Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Chavez as acting PCO Secretary.

Following the series of devastating storms that cut across the Philippines, typhoons Kristine, Leon and Marce left trails of destruction in their path. The Marcos administration struggled to bring immediate relief to the victims and is grappling with the reconstruction of typhoon-damaged areas around the country. The rhetorical remarks of PBBM after typhoon Kristine’s onslaught “What can we do?” have been bashed and trolled in social media.

In the past, PBBM has been under fire from his most bitter critics for the many official travels and personal trips abroad since he took office in June 2022. Officially accompanied by his wife, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, PBBM’s most recent trip abroad this year took him to Jakarta last Oct. 19. PBBM was among heads of member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) invited as guests to the inauguration of newly elected President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto.

To date, PBBM has chalked up 11 trips abroad for this year alone, two of which took him to Australia.

The Chief Executive made a state visit first to Canberra from February 27 to 28. This was to reciprocate the state visit of his Australian counterpart, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who flew to the Philippines last year. A week after his state visit, PBBM returned for the 50th anniversary of the ASEAN-Australia dialogue partnership held in Melbourne.

Speaking of Australia, choice excerpts of the controversial TV interview of PBBM with the 7/30 talk show of Sarah Ferguson of ABC Australia was still being played as in-house commercial break of their news channel. While watching TV at my hotel room in Sydney last August, snippets of Ferguson asking: “May I just ask you why is that funny?” was being highlighted. It showed PBBM visibly discomfited as he snickered at Ferguson’s query on the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth cases. Perhaps, PBBM could charge talent fee as an unwitting “model” in promoting Ferguson as their hard-hitting TV news anchor. Just joking.

Levity aside, the only instance the APEC Leaders’ Summit got cancelled was in November 2019. It was Chile’s turn to host it in their capital city of Santiago. Due to the wave of deadly violence that swept Chile, their government was forced to also abort hosting the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25). This is a yearly meeting of the signatory governments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). That summit would have brought delegates from around 190 nations to talks aimed at threshing out details of how to reduce global emissions to meet the Paris climate agreement.

In an official announcement, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga will lead the Philippine delegation to Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) that opens today and will run until Nov. 22. She left with four members of the House of Representatives but no senators signed up for this trip.

In the same DENR announcement, Loyzaga vowed the Philippines would strive to follow up on previous COP25 commitments, including the $100 billion per year that the UNFCCC previously agreed upon. She further announced the Philippines is also in the midst of preparations to host the fourth meeting of the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund to be held in Manila from Dec. 2 to 5 this year.

Just last Aug. 28, PBBM signed into law Republic Act No. 12019, or the Loss and Damage Fund Board Act to grant juridical personality and legal capacity to the Philippines’ hosting of the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund. The new law empowers the Fund Board to respond to and recover loss and damage arising from climate change and mobilize broad and innovative sources of climate financing for this purpose.

Meanwhile, Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Frasco led “the largest Philippine delegation after the pandemic” to the 2024 World Travel Market 2024 held in London last Nov. 5 to 7. Frasco along with other government and private sector tourism and travel executives, purportedly carried the banner of the “Love the Philippines” campaign promoting our country “as a destination of vibrant culture, world-class leisure, and sustainable travel experiences.”

While PBBM skipped the APEC summit, two of his most-traveled alter egos were on the go for trips abroad.