Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 6) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. plans to visit Honolulu, Hawaii and another city on the West Coast when he goes to the United States in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, said Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez.
He told reporters on Tuesday that Marcos would have a “very tight schedule” as he plans to visit other areas in the US apart from San Francisco, California where the summit will be held.
“The president plans to visit another city on the West Coast, and then from there, possibly go to other — maybe, we’re still trying to work out a short stay, a short visit to Honolulu. There’s a large Filipino community there,” Romualdez said on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Indonesia.
In 1986, the Marcoses went into exile in Honolulu after the peaceful EDSA People Power Revolution that helped topple the dictatorship of Marcos’ father and namesake Ferdinand E. Marcos. The elder Marcos died there in 1989.
Romualdez said the president would like to have meetings with businesses that could potentially invest in the Philippines, including tech companies based in Silicon Valley which are “very eager to meet with him.”
“There’s also quite a number of requests from financial institutions,” the ambassador said.
“There are also companies in the manufacturing business in the West Coast, and probably a follow-up on the modular nuclear power plants that we’ve been talking about, and a number of companies that are based in the West Coast,” he added.
Marcos’ November trip will be his third to the US as president. The first was in September 2022 for the 77th United Nations General Assembly, while the second was in late April this year for a five-day official visit.
