Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez will represent the Philippine government at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
The Philippine diplomat said envoys will represent their countries as no heads of state were invited as a matter of policy.
“Only ambassadors represented in Washington are invited,” he explained, confirming to GMA News Online his plan to attend the event.
It can be recalled that Mr. Marcos phoned Trump to congratulate him shortly after the latter won his second term as US president in November 2024.
Apart from obligatory pleasantries, the two leaders discussed the alliance between the Philippines and the US during the phone call.
“I expressed to him our continuing desire to strengthen that relationship between our two countries, which is a relationship that is as deep as can possibly be because it has been [existing] for a very long time,” Mr. Marcos said, recounting his conversation with the American leader.
Earlier, the Marcos administration expressed confidence that the ties between the Philippines and the US will remain unchanged under the second Trump presidency.
“There will be no radical shift in the alliance between the Philippines and the United States under the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump,” the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said, quoting geopolitical analyst Don McLain Gill.
“The Philippine-US alliance today has become so consequential to the interest of both the United States and the Philippines,” Gill said at a recent news forum in Manila.
Gill noted the Philippines and the US have also institutionalized their partnership as a hub for cooperation between and among like-minded partners with key US allies in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
He added that European countries are “increasingly” looking at the PH-US ties as a fulcrum for their interest in the Indo-Pacific.
