Marcos: I don't work for Beijing or Washington
At A Glance
- Marcos said Filipinos only wanted to promote peace and national interest.
President Marcos said that while the Philippines has relationships with both China and the United States of America (USA), he will always push for what is best for the Philippines, and upholding the international rules-based order is one of the ways to do it.
Marcos said this during his bilateral meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte in Singapore on Friday, May 31.
During the meeting, both leaders shared that they are facing challenges with their neighbors— the Philippines with China over the West Philippine Sea, while Lithuania has the same with Russia.
In his remarks, the President said Filipinos only wanted to promote peace and national interest.
"Over a hundred years we have been in contact with informal trade that has been going on. It’s still not balanced. All we want, really, is the promotion of peace and the national interest," he said.
"I don’t work for Beijing, I don’t work for Washington, I don’t work for Moscow. I work for Manila. I work for the Philippines and that’s what I need to promote," he added.
Marcos said one way to achieve this is by promoting the international rules-based order.
“The only way that we can navigate through all of these is to find ourselves, plant ourselves very clearly within international law, and within the rules-based order, within the agreements that most nations are made, with one another when it comes to the resolution of these kinds of differences,” he said.
President Marcos noted that some countries allied with one another to become a stronger voice in support of the law and sovereignty.
“We promote peace... That’s what we are trying to promote," he said.
In response, Prime Minister Simonyte said she fully supported President Marcos’ statement.
“Absolutely. I think that, you know, small states matter. That will be my message tomorrow on the panel but not only small states matter, international law matters because this is a safety network for small states,” she said.
President Marcos said the world has changed in a manner that “you can no longer isolate” the effects of the war in Europe, saying the impact is felt in places even outside the continent.