Speaker laying groundwork for Marcos-Biden meeting

MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Martin Romualdez is in the United States to help lay the groundwork for the visit of President Marcos this weekend to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden and other US officials.

“I think the conditions are right for the meeting between President Bongbong Marcos and President Joe Biden. We have high hopes for the exchange of ideas between the two leaders and its outcome,” the Leyte congressman said.

The Speaker and the President are maternal cousins since Marcos’ mother, former first lady Imelda Romualdez, is the older sister of Romualdez’s father Benjamin.

Just days before President Marcos’ visit, Romualdez embarked on a two-week trip to the US to meet with American lawmakers to discuss defense and security cooperation and economic partnership between the Philippines and the US.

The Speaker is following up on his earlier interactions with his US counterpart, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and other American lawmakers and officials.

The Speaker and his delegation also had meetings with US House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Representatives Young Kim, Mike Rogers, Darrell Issa, Ami Bera and Chris Stewart. 

He described his meeting with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives and other lawmakers as “historic and fruitful.”

It was the first meeting between House speakers of the two countries in recent years.

“Our meeting proved fruitful as the Philippine delegation managed to impress on Speaker McCarthy the need for the legislative representatives of the two countries to ramp up discussions on how to further boost US-Philippine relations,” Romualdez said.

“Relations between our two countries remain strong. Our security alliance under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty is ironclad. Our economic partnership is robust. And the friendship between our two peoples is solid,” he said. 

The other members of Romualdez’s delegation include Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, Agusan del Norte Rep. Jose Aquino II, House secretary general Reginald Velasco and sergeant-at-arms Napoleon Taas.