President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. meets the United States Congressional Delegation (CODEL) of the House Committee Affairs; Representative Michael McCaul (Republican) – Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Chairman Emeritus of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Representative Joe Wilson (Republican) – House Committee on Foreign Affairs during a courtesy call in Malacanang Palace on August 08, 2024. PHOTO BY YUMMIE DINGDING / PPA POOL
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday gifted commemorative coins to two visiting US congressmen, one of whom gave him cowboy boots.
The boots were from Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the foreign affairs committee of the US House of Representatives, who called on the President in Malacañang with South Carolina Rep. Addison Graves Wilson.
“I’d like to thank Rep. Michael McCaul for the cowboy boots. In keeping with Philippine folklore and traditions, it was only right that I gave him a coin,” Mr. Marcos said in a post on Instagram.
READ: Marcos meets with US lawmakers in Malacañang
The President was referring to a Filipino superstition that giving shoes as a gift would lead to the receiver walking away from or walking all over the giver.
To remedy the bad luck, the President gave the two lawmakers commemorative coins to signify that the footwear were purchased.
Aside from leading the powerful committee on foreign affairs, McCaul is also chair emeritus of the House committee on homeland security. Aside from the foreign affairs panel, Wilson is a member of the armed services committee.
In his Instagram post, Mr. Marcos said the long-standing alliance of the Philippines and the United States is now bearing fruit even amid new challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, an apparent reference to the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
“I hope the Philippines and [the United States] will keep walking toward our shared vision of a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” the President said.
“On behalf of the Philippines, we express our gratitude for all the United States has done and continues to do in support of our alliance and to strong adherence for the Philippines,” Mr. Marcos told McCaul and Wilson.
The two lawmakers assured the Philippines of the United States’ continued support as shown by the the country’s inclusion in the US Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.
In last week’s Fourth Philippines-US Ministerial Dialogue, US State Secretary Anthony Blinken announced a proposed allocation of $500 million for the Philippines from the $2.5-billion FMF supplemental budget for the Indo-Pacific region.
“The supplemental appropriation is very important,” McCaul said. “We see Israel, Ukraine [and the] Indo-Pacific: three areas in the world, three regions [being] attacked by tyrannical governments. We see President Putin and President Xi made an alliance in Beijing,”
McCaul praised the President for his “very strong speech” in the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last May, where Mr. Marcos boldly declared that its claims to the West Philippine are not based on imagination but on international law.