18 foreign trips in 18 months: Where are the investments?

For the nth time, the president has gone abroad and again he makes promises of direct foreign investments to our country. Well, it’s within his power and prerogative to travel. It’s his duty to attend international conferences. But it’s not his obligation to make promises of investments that never seem to come into fruition.

The BBM's eighteenth foreign trip in his second year of the presidency was to the US from November 15 to 18, which, we all know, was officially intended to attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Forum in San Francisco. He again raised the expectations of the Filipino people by counting the chicks even before they hatched. This coming December 16 to 18, he will make his 19th foreign trip. BBM will again fly to Tokyo for an official visit to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and then attend the 50th ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation Commemorative Summit. Whenever he travels he brings along with him a large delegation of official and personal allies, most of whom charge their travel expenses to public funds.

The seventeenth foreign trip last October 19 to 21 was to Saudi Arabia to attend the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Summit. He also met the kingdom's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman and the Crown Prince of Kuwait Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. He also met with prospective investors in the Maharlika Investment Fund. He often makes departure and arrival speeches focusing on foreign investments that never come in the volume, amounts, and frequencies promised. The 16th visit was on September 13 to 17 contemporaneous with his 66th birthday to attend the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, supposedly upon the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. If you represent a poor country, is this trip really necessary? How have our country and our people benefited from that?

The fifteenth foreign peregrination was on September 14 to 17 in Jakarta to attend the 43rd ASEAN Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit. BBM met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeoh, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chin. In fairness, BBM is hardworking. He never seems to get tired. But promising so much investments and not being able to deliver on these promises is what constitutes our beef. The Philippines remains as one of the bottom economies in ASEAN with minuscule direct foreign investments. The fourteenth trip was to Malaysia from July 25 to 27 to meet King Abdullah and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The thirteenth was in Indonesia on May 9 to 11 to attend the 42nd ASEAN Summit. The twelfth was on May 5 and 6 just to be seen among the rich and the famous attending the highly-ceremonial coronation of King Charles. How can that help our poor country and poor people? The eleventh trip was to the USA on April 30 to May 4 just to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The tenth trip was to Japan from February 8 to 12 just to see Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako. The ninth was from January 15 to 20 in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, The eighth was from January 3 to 6 to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping. All these with too-large delegations drain public funds. No returns on investments except speeches and promises.

In his first six months in office, BBM made no less than seven foreign trips: first, September 4 to 6, 2022, state visit; second, to Singapore on September 6 to 7, just to see the prime minister; third, to the US on September 18 to 24 for the UN General Assembly; fourth, Singapore again, for the 2022 Grand Prix from October 1 to 3; fifth, in Cambodia for the 41st and 42nd ASEAN Summit on November 9 to 13 last year. Sixth to Thailand for the APEC from November 16 to 19 and seventh, to Brussels to attend the ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit.

Some of these trips are merely for ceremonial events and for Grand Prix. Too much public funds have been spent and too many members of the delegations need not be there. The people are suffering. Poverty is on the rise. The promises of investments are not even tracked, much less followed up for fruition. No jobs are created. Unemployment is on the rise. These travels are a big burden to the nation and the people. What is happening to our country, general?