MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is once again traveling to the United States – his second this year and his third since becoming the Philippines’ chief executive – in mid-November.

The jam-packed trip will see Marcos rub elbows with foreign leaders at the 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, meet American soldiers, and reach out to the Filipino diaspora in three US cities.

Here’s what you need to know.

It’s a weeklong trip.

President Marcos will leave Manila on November 14, and is scheduled to come home on November 20.

First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez – the President’s consistent companions in his foreign trips – are expected to join him.

When Marcos took part in the 2022 APEC Summit in Thailand, he was accompanied by numerous cabinet secretaries representing the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Migrant Workers, and Department of Trade and Industry. It is not unlikely that they will be part of the President’s entourage again.

The gathering of foreign leaders for the APEC Summit is from November 15 to 17.

The annual event already began on November 11, with APEC finance officials and ministers coming together for preparatory talks in San Francisco, California.

The economic leaders’ meeting, which Marcos will be a part of, is from November 15 to 17.

APEC is unique in the sense that it groups member economies rather than nations, enabling the participation of self-ruled Taiwan and Chinese-ruled Hong Kong.

The members of APEC are:

• Australia
• Brunei
• Canada
• Chile
• China
• Hong Kong
• Indonesia
• Japan
• South Korea
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Peru
• Philippines
• Russia
• Singapore
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• United States
• Vietnam

The DFA said the President will:

• Push for financing a sustainable energy transition through tie-ups with the business sector
• emphasize the need to invest more on clean energy and protect the environment
• Push for deeper cooperation on health and food security
• Touch on digitalization and innovation to prepare the country’s workforce for digital transformation

The summit is also an opportunity for him to hold bilateral talks with foreign leaders. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are already slated to meet on the sidelines of the event.

If a meeting between Marcos and Xi takes place, it will be their first face-to-face conversation in 10 months. Since January, tensions have escalated in the West Philippine Sea.

After the APEC Summit, Marcos will fly to another city in California.

After the 30th APEC Summit wraps up on November 17, Marcos is expected to make a short stopover to Los Angeles, which is home to over half a million Filipinos, the highest in the US.

Just like in San Francisco, the President will attend a meet-and-greet session with the Filipino diaspora in LA.

Marcos will then make his way to Hawaii, the place where his father died.

Marcos’ last destination in the US is Hawaii, the island state where his family went on exile after the EDSA People Power revolt ousted his dictator father in 1986.

The President has bitter memories of his time there – Marcos Sr. died on the island in 1989, carrying with him the failure to fulfill his aspiration to return to the country he once led.

Marcos Jr. and the rest of the family stayed in Hawaii until 1991, when the Corazon Aquino government allowed them to come back to the Philippines to face the several criminal and civil cases against them.

“Those were dark days,” Marcos said in January.

He will make his public return there as a man who has since risen to the top of the totem pole, following a decades-long project to rehabilitate the Marcos family’s image.

Like in the two cities in California, the President is expected to mingle with the Filipino community in Honolulu.

In Hawaii, Marcos will make a rare visit to the US Indo-Pacific Command.

In Hawaii, Marcos will visit the US Indo-Pacific Command, the US military’s biggest unified geographic combatant command.

American soldiers under the Indo-Pacific Command usually train with Filipino soldiers during the annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines.

Marcos’ presence there will be yet another indication of the Philippines’ efforts to bolster ties with the US, a treaty ally which has pushed back against Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea.

The last Philippine president to visit Hawaii was the late Benigno Aquino III in 2011, when he attended the APEC Summit on the island. – Rappler.com