ABOARD THE PRESIDENTIAL PLANE – After wrapping his official visit to Japan, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that he and his Cabinet would convene to review all investment pledges made by foreign parties so far during his nine trips overseas as the Philippine leader.

The purpose of the meeting, Marcos said, would be to sort the priority of deals signed and determine what next steps were necessary for the pledges to materialize.

“The reason I said tigil na muna lahat ng itong trip (let’s stop these trips first) is all of us, we are going to sit down and we are going to talk about each and every single project that we have talked about in ASEAN, that we have talked about in APEC, that we have talked about in EU, that we have talked about in New York, that we talked about in China, and now in Japan,” Marcos said in an interview with reporters on a flight back to Manila from Japan on Sunday, February 12.

“We need to go back to all of that. We’ll go through each one – which ones here do we really want? Which ones should be prioritized? What do we need to do to change it?” he added in Filipino.

Total investment pledges from Marcos’ trips so far stand at an estimated $54.2 billion.

This includes $22.8 billion from China, $13 billion from Japan, $3.9 billion from New York, $14.35 billion from Indonesia and Singapore, and $179 million from Brussels.

‘We have held the ball’

Marcos made the remarks after he was asked what the government would do to ensure investment pledges would be realized.

Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual earlier told reporters that after securing billions in foreign pledges so far, it was now up to the Philippine government to ensure these translate to actual projects.

In the past, the failure to address foreign business concerns has seen the Philippines fall behind its neighbors.

In 2021, data from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations showed that foreign direct investments to the Philippines stood at $12.4 billion, an amount less that Vietnam’s $15.6 billion and Thailand’s $14.64 billion.

“We have held the ball. We need to shoot the ball and make a score,” Pascual said.

Investor concerns

In meetings with Japanese businessmen, Marcos said executives raised their concerns on value-added tax refunds, slow regulatory processes, and the need to upskill Filipino workers.

Foreign investors have also long raised high energy costs in the Philippines, as well as gaps in logistics and infrastructure requirements.

In Tokyo, Marcos sought to banner changes already made in the Public Service Act allowing for full foreign ownership in select utilities such as telecommunications, changes in the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, and public private partnerships as reasons why foreign investors should consider expanding operations in the Philippines.

He also promised to clear the way for interested foreign partners to heavily invest in the Philippines.

“It’s up to us. Talagang i-follow up natin, pagandahin natin ng mahusto at mabubuo yan. Eh kung basta’t hanggang pirmahan lang, wala talagang mangyayari diyan,” Marcos said.

(It’s up to us. We’ll follow it up and conclude it. If it just ends with signing, nothing will really happen there.)

With his ninth trip abroad, Marcos has come under increased pressure to ensure time away from the Philippines would bring in real investments. He’s also under pressure to address rising prices of goods and services due to inflation, along with shortages of some agricultural commodities.

Marcos sits concurrently as agriculture secretary. – Rappler.com