Although the alliance between the Philippines and the United States remains “ironclad,” Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez admitted that the Philippines has “to be ready to defend itself in the future.

President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. and US President Donald Trump (Malacañang, White House photos)

In an interview on Newswatch PH on Tuesday, March 4, the envoy assured that President Marcos is focusing on strengthening the country’s armed forces and economy for the Philippines “to be able to defend ourselves.”

“It's ironclad, but we have to be always ready for, you know, there is only one permanent thing in this world and that's change. And so everything changes as time goes by. So, more than ever, we should learn from what we are experiencing today that we have to be ready to defend ourselves in the future,” he said.

“It (Alliance) can be ironclad today, and it can be something else tomorrow,” the ambassador added.

Romualdez’s remarks came after the stormy White House meeting last week between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the subsequent withdrawal of military aid by Washington from its wartime ally.

But the envoy stressed that the President’s “concentration” is on beefing up the country’s armed forces and this was already instructed to Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr.

Meanwhile, Manila and Washington are also working on a possible April or May 2025 in-person meeting between Marcos and Trump.

Romualdez said they are currently working with the White House on the possible topics to be covered during the meeting, as well as the potential schedule.

“Importante sa lahat (Most important of all is that) both leaders have indicated that they like to meet in person when they spoke before the inauguration of President Trump,” he shared, but admitted that the White House “is very busy right now” because of the issues in Europe “so we just have to wait.”

“Pero lahat yan (But all of these), just the same, tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang pag-uugnayan natin sa ibang mga government agencies sa Amerika (we continue to coordinate with American government agencies),” he added.

Romualdez is also currently working on getting foreign funding waivers for the Philippines’ health, education, and climate resiliency programs heavily reliant on US aid.

This after the Trump administration imposed a 90-day freeze of its foreign aid funding to ascertain if the programs are in line with the administration’s foreign policies.

“Marami tayong mga projects diyan na medyo nakabitin ngayon pero malapit nang malalaman natin dahil yun (We have many pending projects now but we will soon know because the) 90-day period will end I think by the end of April,” he said.