Marcos back in PH with $4.2B after Saudi Arabia visit

BUSINESS AGREEMENTS | President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. shakes hands with one of Saudi Arabia’s business leaders after members of a Filipino business delegation on Thursday signed several agreements worth more than $4.26 billion with their Saudi partners, a day before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh. (PPA POOL PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. returned to the country on Saturday afternoon after a two-day official trip to Saudi Arabia, bringing home $4.2 billion in investment pledges, and assurance of better working conditions for Filipino workers in the Middle East.

The flight PR001 from Riyadh, carrying the President and the Philippine delegation, arrived at the Villamor Air Base at 2:48 p.m.

In his arrival speech, Marcos said his “very short” trip to Riyadh for the inaugural summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit was “successful and productive.”

“The summit provided an opportunity to project the Philippines’ long-standing promotion of a rules-based international order which is essential to the maintenance of peace, security and stability in our regions, which sit astride two of the most vibrant sea-lanes of trade and communications in the world,” he said.

According to him, he pushed for more cooperation between the Philippines and the GCC countries on the sectors of energy, food security and the enhancement of logistic chains “for the continued progress of our [interdependent] global economy.”

The GCC countries, which consist of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, are home to about 2 million Filipino workers.

During the summit, he said that Asean and GCC leaders also discussed the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas militants.

“I shared our hope for peace that it should prevail and for the welfare and safety of civilians to be upheld in accordance with international humanitarian law,” he said.

He also said he met with Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to discuss the labor issues facing Filipino workers in Kuwait.