Your Excellency President Duterte and Madam Honey; honorable ministers, ambassadors and senior officials; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. Magandang gabi. Good evening. [applause]

President Duterte, my delegation and I are extremely happy to be here. Thank you from the bottom of our heart for the warm and graceful welcome you and your government have extended to us.

Our peoples have long been good friends. We share our love for rich fruits and for television drama.

For many years, we have had Filipino executives and managers in Indonesia and many Indonesians especially executives have come to Manila for studies.

Mr. President, it is very favorable that you and I have so much in common. We were both mayors of medium-sized city. [applause]

I believe that you and I are not fancy people. I believe that you and I are driven by a healthy common sense and by our love for our people.

I am excited that we will be visiting Davao tomorrow or the day after. I was told that Davao is very famous for its delicious fruit like Davao durian. Sobrang masarap. [laughter and applause]

I am excited that we will be launching the new RORO, Roll-on, Roll-off, between Davao, General Santos and Bitung in North Sulawesi.

I am hopeful that this new connectivity between the Philippines and Indonesia will foster new opportunities and new businesses.

I have [inaudible] the people of Philippines to look at Indonesia as your closest neighbor in ASEAN. 

Mr. President, Madam, ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to invite you to stand and raise a toast to the welfare and prosperity of our peoples. 

Maraming Salamat po. Thank you very much. 

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