It was an act of statesmanship of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (PBBM) to skip this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Summit in order to attend to more pressing domestic concerns at home. The APEC Leaders' summit commenced yesterday and will culminate on Nov. 16 in Lima, Peru.
The Philippines, including the United States, is among the 12 founding members of the APEC in 1989. From then on, top leaders and officials from 21 APEC member-economies gather and each country takes a turn to host the summit meetings every year. Presidential Communications Secretary Cesar Chavez announced last Thursday the Chief Executive will skip the APEC summit to prioritize his focus and energy on national concerns in the aftermath of recent disasters, "including government responses to calamities."
Such a grand gesture deserves kudos, not skepticism or cynicism.
Malacañang further announced Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) acting Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque was designated as PBBM's special envoy to the APEC Economic Leaders' Week. Appointed acting DTI secretary last August, Roque concurrently holds this "special envoy" designation.
While PBBM's stay-home decision is laudable, Roque's add-on designation is on shaky grounds, to say the least. As a newly appointed Cabinet Secretary, she has yet to hurdle the confirmation process at the Commission on Appointments (CA). The 25-man bicameral body of Congress chaired by Senate President Francis Escudero did not pass any confirmation last week.
To date, PBBM has chalked up 11 trips abroad for this year alone, two of which took him to Australia.
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