Philippine House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left) and United States (US) House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Speaker’s office)


House Speaker Martin Romualdez has capped what had been a very hectic schedule in Washington DC in the United States (US) with a historic meeting with his American counterpart, Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “Our meeting proved fruitful as the Philippine delegation managed to impress on Speaker McCarthy the need for the legislative representatives of the two countries to ramp up discussions on how to further boost US-Philippine relations,” Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district representative, said of the meeting. McCarthy is a Republican who represents California in US Congress. The two leaders met at the US Capitol on late Wednesday night,  April 19 (Philippine time), shortly before Romualdez flew to Boston to honor an invitation to speak before Harvard University officials, faculty members and students on Philippine-US security cooperation, and regional and domestic peace, stability and economic issues. It was the first interaction between the House Speakers of the two long-time allied countries in recent years. “Philippine-US relations remain strong. Our security alliance under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty is ironclad. Our economic partnership is robust. And the friendship between our two peoples is solid,” stressed Romualdez. He said he and McCarthy agreed on improving linkages and communication, synergy, coordination, and sharing of best practices between their institutions. “We were thankful that the Speaker shared our ideals and agreed to continue similar discussions in the future,” said the Filipino leader, who was accompanied by a handful of Philippine House of Representatives members. Meanwhile, Romualdez invited McCarthy, the third highest-ranking US official, to visit the Philippines soon and attend the country’s hosting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF). “Our message to the US legislators was clear. The US-Philippine relation is strong, and is reaching new heights and levels of understanding under the administrations of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. and US President Joe Biden. Our defense and security arrangements are solid, and our bilateral strategic partnership is working,” he said. “However, we also pointed out the need to step up bilateral discussions on economic issues to make the benefits of this dynamic relationship more tangible tenfold for our people. We need to strengthen not only our defense cooperation, but also our economic partnership,” he said. Romualdez earlier met Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Reps Young Kim, Mike Rogers, Darrell Issa, Ami Bera, and Chris Stewart in separate meetings at the US Capitol.