President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. during one-on-one meetings with representatives from Siemens AG, Wind Power Development (WPD), and Airbus. | PHOTO: Official Facebook page of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO)
BERLIN, Germany — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday dismissed the criticism of his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, that he was just out for leisure in his foreign trips.
In an interview with reporters here, the President stressed that his schedule was so tight that he did not have time to go sight-seeing during his three-day working visit to Germany.
“This is my schedule. Where’s the time for leisure? It’s my schedule for today. Where’s the ‘pasyal’? None,” Marcos said as he held up a copy of his schedule for the Philippine media delegation to see.
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He went on: “You were with me. We don’t go sight-seeing. Even in the places that I spent a lot of time in, I have not been able to visit the places that I used to visit. Because we’re here to work.”
The President made the remarks in response to Duterte’s criticism at a recent rally held at the Liwasang Bonifacio.
The former President alleged that Marcos was just going on foreign trips for leisure, not for work as the highest official of the land.
The President arrived here on Monday night for a three-day working visit to Germany. On Tuesday, he had back-to-back meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and executives of German companies and attended the Philippine-German Business Forum.
On Tuesday night, Marcos met with the Filipino community in Berlin and then sat down for an interview with reporters here on Wednesday.
The President left Berlin on Wednesday afternoon to fly to Prague, where he was invited for a three-day state visit to the Czech Republic.
It was not the first time that his foreign trips were criticized. His visit to Germany was his 24th foreign trip since he assumed office in 2022. Germany was the 16th country he visited as President.
Malacanang’s travel budget for the President’s local and foreign trips was raised to P 1.408 billion this year – a 58 percent increase from 2023’s P 893.57 million travel fund.
In comparison, Duterte made 21 trips to 20 countries from 2016 to 2022, and barely ventured outside of Asia with the exception of two visits to Russia in 2017 and 2019.