PRESIDENT MARCOS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

From the Senatorial delegation that has come to be with us here in the Philippines and we thank you very much for your visit, and it is particularly important.

I supposed, I could say, since you’re coming in the middle of your rather topsy-turvy political cycle which is going on right now.

But I’m happy—very happy to welcome all of you to the Philippines and I hope that the time that you will spend here can be a productive time where we are able to—discuss further the situation concerning the Philippines and the geopolitical complications that we are facing presently.

So, thank you once again for your visit.

OFFICIAL: Thank you, Mr. President. Let me turn it over to the head of delegation, Senator Gillibrand.

SENATOR GILLIBRAND: Thank you, Mr. President, for welcoming us.

We are delighted to be in your beautiful country. We arrived yesterday and have been just filled with optimism and hope for the future.

And we are so grateful for our years of friendship. We’re grateful for the steadfast partnership we had economically. We’re grateful to have you as an ally.

Each of those roles is essential for the United States and we hope to continue to play those roles.

We have such a strong friendship with the Philippines because we have four million Filipinos in the United States.

And we consider them our brothers and sisters, and our neighbors.

And so, we’re very grateful for all the contributions that the Filipino community has made in the United States.

You’re the forefront of healthcare, you’re the forefront of tech, many of your countrymen have served in our armed services. And so, we’re very grateful for all the contributions that Filipino-Americans continue to make throughout the country.

We do believe that we’re in a moment of extraordinary opportunity. Especially for economic ties, to build upon existing strengths. Whether they are in the fields of energy, or in the fields of rare earth minerals, or in the fields of commerce.

These are important alliances for us and we want to continue to grow on that. We want to build on the trip that Secretary Raimondo just had here with a number of executives from our companies.

So, we’re grateful for that.

We share your concern about China’s aggression with regard to many issues around to  the Philippines.

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