Manalo positive for COVID-19, to miss first ASEAN engagement

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will not be participating in the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and Related Meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia this week after he tested positive for COVID over the weekend.

In a message on Twitter yesterday, Manalo said he had sent regrets to Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and this year’s AMM chair Prak Sokhonn.

“This would have been my first ASEAN engagement in my capacity as secretary for foreign affairs, so it is unfortunate that my absence happens at this important time,” he said.

He added that the Philippines’ participation would not be affected as the country would be represented by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro in the said meetings.

“I will concentrate on recovery so I can go back to working at the DFA as soon as possible, and I look forward to the next opportunity to meet with ASEAN colleagues and our dialogue partners,” he said.

DFA spokespreson Ma. Teresita Daza said Manalo tested positive for the virus last Sunday.

The AMM-55 will be held in Phnom Penh from Aug. 2 to 6.

On Thursday, Assistant Secretary for Asean Affairs Daniel Espiritu said “Secretary Manalo is expected to assert the 1982 UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) and the arbitral award as the twin anchors of our actions and policies on the South China Sea” during the AMM.

The DFA also announced the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Aug. 5 to 6.

It will be Blinken’s first visit to the Philippines since assuming office in January 2021.

While in Manila, the DFA said Blinken would meet Manalo to discus a wide range of issues, focusing on sustaining the positive trajectory of relations between the Philippines and the United States, strengthening the alliance, and broadening cooperation in the economic sphere, in the context of both countries’ efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and other regional and global challenge.

Daza said “preparations for Secretary Blinken’s visit are ongoing.”

It will be the first visit for a US secretary of state since then secretary Mike Pompeo’s visit in Manila in March 2019.