FILE PHOTO: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. | PHOTO COURTESY of his official Facebook page
MANILA, Philippines — Although President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. “does not want to travel,” it is a must for country leaders as diplomacy is conducted face-to-face, an envoy said on Wednesday.
Philippine Ambassador to the United States (US) Jose Manuel Romualdez made the remark as critics pointed out that President Marcos is traveling frequently.
“I don’t think so… We’ve had other presidents who traveled a lot,” the envoy said on ANC Headstart when asked for his reaction to those who say that Marcos is traveling too much.
“This president, I know he doesn’t want to travel. He said it to me many times, ‘I can’t keep on going out,’” he added.
Romualdez, however, stressed that traveling is a “must” for leaders nowadays as “diplomacy is conducted in person.”
“There’s a big difference whenever there is an in-person meeting, a face-to-face meeting,” he said.
“Our president needs to do that. We’ve told that to him that there are some commitments or some travel commitments that he really cannot avoid,” he continued.
The diplomat earlier said that the president is set to visit the US at least twice next year.
According to Romualdez, Marcos wants his commitments to be “planned out properly that is spaced out in the right way.”
On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit last week, Marcos said that all countries have invited him for a state visit and he is eyeing to go to all nations.