NEW YORK, USA — President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. cannot visualize the Philippines' future without the United States as its partner in politics and economy.
Marcos said this as he graced the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to ring the Closing Bell on September 19 (New York time).
In a short exchange with NYSE Vice Chairman John Tuttle, the President said that the US is a vital player in his vision of the Philippines moving forward.
"It is very clear to me in my vision for the way that the country will move forward that I cannot see the Philippines in the future without having the United States as a partner," he said.
"Although I was referring to the geopolitics of it, and I was referring to the political situation in the region and around the world, that certainly does continue to apply in our exchanges on the economic front," he added.
Marcos noted how the US had played a part in the Philippines and the lives of Filipinos.
"We are driven together in many ways by forces that exist now in the world and that I think is something that is not --- that we certainly in the Philippines and I think not in the United States either that we are resistant to," he said.
"It is something that I can see as becoming stronger and becoming more robust as we work together towards the new --- towards exploiting properly the new global economy," he added.
According to the President, many of the Philippines' early economic drivers were American corporations. Many of the strongest corporate benefactors to the government and the Philippine society came from the United States.
"Now, of course, this has evolved as time has gone on, but the strength of that relationship continues," he said.
"We envision a further strengthening of those relationships," he added.
Marcos said that the political, economic, and diplomatic ties arising from the Philippines' partnership with other countries are essential to economic and political stability.
"In this highly unstable economic, political, geopolitical, diplomatic environment. This is something that is central to our thinking when it comes to economic planning for the Philippines," he said.
According to Marcos, the Philippines has adjusted how it does business at the behest of its friends in the US and American businesses already in the Philippines.
"I think that will give us great opportunities in the future and for both our countries, for private corporations, for government-to-government agreements and arrangements," he said.
"It is something that we feel can actually be achieved. So the United States has always been central to that," he added.
President Marcos' stand regarding the US is completely different from that of his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who shifted the country's foreign policy and focused on building stronger ties with China and Russia.