Rather than see it as a negative, Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda says President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s successive trips abroad in his first seven months in office is actually a positive.
In an ANC Headstart interview Friday morning, Jan.20, host Karen Davila brought up that Marcos had already been to eight foreign trips, the latest of which is the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
Salceda, the House Committee on Ways and Means chairman, sees such trips as a way to "market" the Philippines. He also noted that there's been hardly any opportunity to market the country the past few years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"There was no Davos for the past three years," he said.
"It’s been like a vacuum in international marketing of investments in the global market so I think perfect nga na the Philippines (I think it's perfect that the Philippines) would be first out there after three years of virtually, very little international marketing," he explained.
"So I think na tama lang po wag lang araw-araw (I think it's only right, let's just not do it every day)," Salceda quipped.
Asked to elaborate, the Bicolano said that small trips abroad that wouldn't be of any benefit to the Philippines could be considered "frivolous trips".
"But I think if you look at the eight that he went to, those are very critical foreign business for the President," he said.
"I think it’s a very well picked naman yung mga events like the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) , the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) and of course the Davos. So it was a way of projecting and he has to sell himself as a Marcos," Salceda said.