National interest paramount, says Philippines’ Marcos on foreign policy

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday asserted that the country’s national interest will be given priority in its foreign policy.

“The Philippines shall continue to be a friend to all and an enemy to none,” Marcos told a joint sitting of the Philippines Congress and Senate in his first state of the nation address.

“We will stand firm in our independent foreign policy, with the national interest as our primordial guide,” said Marcos, who won the general elections last month with a landslide.

“I do not intend to diminish the risks and the challenges that we face in this turbulent time in global history, and yet, I see sunlight filtering through these dark clouds,” said son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in a popular revolt in 1986 and died in 1989 in exile.

Marcos said his government has “assembled the best Filipino minds to help navigate us through this global crisis that we are now facing.”

The president listed priority 19 new legislations to achieve his targets as he assured to expand on the infrastructure building started by his predecessor President Rodrigo Duterte.