Marcos Jr. thanks DFA for ‘quiet, professional’ work on agency’s 125th anniversary Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday thanked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for doing the legwork needed to make his trips abroad successful, noting that those working in diplomacy have been “very quiet” while working on “very difficult, sometimes extremely complicated” issues. Marcos Jr. gave the statement during a Malacañang luncheon for DFA officials in celebration of the agency’s 125th anniversary. “I am very very happy to be able to stand here before you and say that thanks to your very hard work, very skilled work, the great experience that you bring to bear, these trips that you have taken have been quite successful because they have been so well put together,” the President said. “When I get there I am properly briefed, I have good information, maayos ang takbo, all I have to do is make papogi to everybody because you did the legwork for me already,” he said. “For that, I hope you realize how appreciative we all are for the very difficult, sometimes extremely complicated and always quiet work that you do,” he added. Marcos Jr. noted that he has observed the DFA’s “quiet” service even during the administration of his father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. “Having traveled a great deal with my mother when she was First Lady, and myself for many other things, I have a very clear idea of how much work is done by our foreign stations and the people that inhabit those foreign stations, and how much you are expected to do with sometimes very little,” Marcos Jr. said. “That’s why when I see these trips we have been taking, when I see the preparations, how professionally they are done, and how professionally the conduct of these visits go on with the guidance that I get from our diplomats, the different ambassadors, all the con-gens (consul generals), the people in each of the stations, I always feel very well equipped and I always feel that i’m lucky to have that kind of support that is professional,” he said. Marcos Jr. has embarked on 13 trips abroad since rising to power in mid-2022. These include state visits, attendance to international forums such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as trips to social events like King Charles III’s coronation in London and the Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore.

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