President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (REUTERS FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos is off to Switzerland next week to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Jan. 16 to Jan. 20.
This will be his eighth trip abroad since he took office on June 30 last year.
His Switzerland trip will be his second this month, after his three-day state visit to China last week.
Marcos also said he will fly to Japan in February upon the invitation of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
According to the president, his Japanese counterpart extended the invitation when they met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September last year.
“I think the tentative date is around the second week of February,” he said at a press briefing in Beijing last Thursday before returning to Manila.
Marcos said his agenda in Japan would include discussions on economic and regional security.
“The Philippines is seen as an important part of maintaining that security in partnership with friends and partners like Japan and the other countries around the Indo-Pacific, Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
‘Traveling too much’
In November last year, the president said he was invited by WEF founder and executive chair Klaus Schwab to the Davos forum.
“So I am undecided yet. It’s traveling too much. That’s already the end of January,” he told reporters then.
Marcos even recalled his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, asking him: “When do you go to the office?”
During his participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Bangkok last year, he said Vietnam, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, France, Brunei, and Thailand had also invited him.
“What countries have invited me? All. What countries will I accept? All,” Marcos said in jest.
“So I’d like to go to them all at some point. But you know the scheduling. I have to go back to Manila and we also have a lot to fix and finish,” he added.
Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, so far remains the most traveled president in his first year in office, with 21 foreign trips, including seven state visits and attendance at four summits.
Presidents Corazon Aquino had four trips, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, and Benigno Aquino III had eight each, and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had 11.
Before the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, Diosdado Macapagal’s four trips made him the most traveled president in his first year in office.