Separating politics and the economy is key to maintaining the Philippines' political stability and economic growth amid geopolitical issues.

President Marcos made the statement during an interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF) where he emphasized that the only way to respond to geopolitical issues is to separate politics and the economy.

While Marcos said he does not want to underestimate the problem that political and economic issues might bring to the Philippines, he stressed that it can be easily addressed if the country has a guiding principle.

“As long as we have a guiding principle, and that is to separate the two things as much as possible, it’s not necessarily, it’s not a binary solution, but it is something that we need to do if we are going to continue to grow the economy and yet maintain our political stability in the Philippines,” he stated.

The President underscored that the only way to uphold the country's foreign policy, which is to be friend to all and enemy to no one, is to separate politics and the economy.

He, however, recognized that economic power is sometimes used as political power, thus the Philippines would also see what is good for the economy "as long as it does not impact poorly upon the political activities in the Philippines."

“So, it is not that simple, but we have to make that delineation and hopefully, we make the right choices so that our political stability, our political sovereignty, and sovereign rights are defended, robustly,” Marcos said.

“And at the same time, that we are able to deal with any country in the world. No matter what their political leanings might be, no matter what their alliances might be. But again, it is a difficult situation, it’s a difficult problem,” he added.