Philippines, US to sign landmark nuke deal

SAN FRANCISCO – The Philippines and the United States will sign a number of deals, including the landmark 123 agreement on nuclear cooperation, during President Marcos’ four-day visit here.

The 123 agreement, which is expected to encourage more investments in the energy sector, is scheduled to be signed tomorrow, according to Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez.

The agreement creates a legally binding framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation. It is named after Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, which requires the conclusion of a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement for significant transfers of nuclear material or equipment from the US.

The agreement also facilitates cooperation in other areas such as technical exchanges, scientific research and safeguards discussions, according to the US Department of Energy website.

Partner countries of the US will be given access to the benefits of peaceful uses of its nuclear energy, science and technology, but must comply with a set of strong nonproliferation requirements.

In the 1960s until the mid-1980s, the President’s late father and namesake Ferdinand Marcos Sr. pursued a nuclear energy program and ordered the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. The facility was set aside after Corazon Aquino became president in 1986.

The Philippines and the US are also expected to ink agreements on renewable energy, manufacturing and other fields, according to Marcos.

“By the end of the four-day visit to San Francisco, we hope to have witnessed the signing of agreements with various American businesses in the fields of digital infrastructure and connectivity, renewable energy, electronics manufacturing, health and tourism, among others,” the President told members of the Filipino community here yesterday.

Marcos is on a weeklong visit to the US to attend the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting and to meet with top American businesses.

The APEC meet is being held from Nov. 15 to 17. The President will also visit Los Angeles from Nov. 17 to 18 and Hawaii from Nov. 18 to 19. It is Marcos’ third visit to the US and his 18th foreign trip since becoming President in June last year.

‘Big Philippines delegation

After arriving at the San Francisco International Airport 9:05 a.m. yesterday (Philippine time), Marcos and his delegation immediately proceeded to the South San Francisco Conference Center to meet with the Filipino community.

During the event, which was attended by about 1,000 guests, Marcos disclosed that his delegation to the APEC is one of the biggest because vital issues would be tackled during the conference.

“This is perhaps one of the biggest delegation that we brought for the conference because it is very important. We need to discuss with our friends not just from America, but also from other countries several topics,” he said, citing trade and investment, the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Israel and the South China Sea dispute.

He added that he is both honored and humbled to follow the footsteps of his late father who first visited San Francisco in 1966, the first year of his administration.

“My father considered San Francisco as an important city not only because it is home to a very significant Filipino population, but also because this city has always been the historical, cultural and economic link of the Philippines to the continental United States,” the President said.

He recalled that in 1974, the Philippine government purchased a set of buildings in Union Square downtown now known as the Philippine Center in San Francisco.

“Our permanent presence in San Francisco shows our commitment through the Philippines’ long-standing ties with the Bay Area, the Silicon Valley and California as a whole and the surrounding states,” he said.

Marcos also noted that there are now more than four million Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in the US, of whom 1.3 million reside in the jurisdiction of the consul general of San Francisco, and around 700,000 Filipinos live and work in the Bay Area.

The Chief Executive likewise praised Filipinos for establishing a good reputation abroad, saying they are now known as the “kings and queens of overtime.”

He thanked them for supporting him and Vice President Sara Duterte during last year’s elections, and for keeping the Philippine economy afloat through the remittances they send home.

Marcos said that health workers in the US injected $14.89 billion in cash remittances to the Philippine economy last year, making their host country the Philippines’ biggest single source of remittances.

“I know that you all came to the United States for many different reasons, mostly economic. You sought greener pastures and a better life for yourselves and for your families, but this did not stop you from giving back to your homeland, to the Philippines,” he added.