From left to right: President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker's office)






It didn't take long for President Ferdinand 'Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s visit to the United States (US) to produce benefits for the Philippines. Thus, said Speaker Martin Romualdez as he gave an update about Marcos' stateside trip to House of Representatives reporters. He said that on the second day of his five-day official visit to the US, Marcos met with American President Joe Biden at the White House, where they resolved to draw on the strength of the enduring partnership between the two countries to promote economic growth and prosperity in the US, the Philippines, and the broader Indo-Pacific region. Among others, President Biden said he will dispatch a presidential trade and investment mission to the Philippines on his behalf as he also committed to step up America’s support in a wide range of issues, including climate change mitigation and the economy. “This high-level trade and investment mission from the US will add more momentum to sustain our country’s economic growth and help establish the Philippines as a hub for investments and as a regional supply chain hub,” Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district congressman, said. “Such bilateral economic engagement with the US will not only generate more jobs and business opportunities for our people but, more importantly, it would focus on sectors critical to ensuring a resilient supply chain to avert the recurrence of serious disruptions that wreaked havoc in the economies of many countries in the past few years,” he added. Romualdez--arguably Marcos' top ally in Philippine legislature and his most trusted lieutenant overall--has been in the US since mid-April. He laid down the groundwork for the Philippine leader's arrival through a series of engagements with US lawmakers and private business leaders where they discussed means of elevating the Philippine-US partnership to new heights. The House Speaker noted that prior to the meeting between the two leaders at the Oval Office, Marcos led the Philippine delegation in sealing new trade and investment deals with private firms, as well as cooperation agreements with the US government. Earlier on Monday, Marcos witnessed the historic signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. of the Ayala Group and California-based Zero Motorcycles on a partnership to manufacture electric motorcycles in the Philippines. Top nuclear energy firm NuScale Power Corporation expressed interest to invest in the Philippines after a meeting with Marcos in Washington DC and bared plans for a study to locate an appropriate site in the country for its Small Modular Reactor, a compact yet proven safe nuclear power plant. The Philippines and the US have also agreed to set up a ministerial team on agricultural cooperation during a meeting between Marcos and US Department of Agriculture officials led by Secretary Thomas Vilsack. “US agriculture technology will be of immense value in helping us not only enhance the productivity of our agricultural sectors but also in combatting the ill effects of climate change, particularly now that we are facing the threat of the El Nino phenomenon,” said Romualdez, who accompanied Marcos and other members of the Philippine delegation during the meetings with US business and government leaders. Apart from scoring gains in the area of economy, Romualdez said the Marcos-Biden meeting also bolstered the long-standing security alliance between the two countries.