First Marcos-Trump talk in the pipeline — envoy

The first in-person meeting between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and United States President Donald Trump is being arranged, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said Tuesday.

According to Romualdez, the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC is coordinating with the White House on the topics Marcos wants to discuss with Trump.

“It’s now just a matter of scheduling, and it will happen fairly soon. As I have said, these things require some preparation,” he said in a television interview.

Romualdez, a second cousin of Marcos, emphasized that the president wants to ensure his first meeting with the business mogul-turned-politician is productive.

“President Marcos certainly doesn’t want to come to Washington and just wait for an appointment. We want to make sure that he gets that appointment so they can have a meaningful discussion,” he said.

Marcos expressed his intention to meet with Trump last month after the latter’s victory in the November US elections. According to a statement from the Presidential Communications Office, Marcos hopes to “influence” Trump’s policymaking, particularly on immigration.

“Some hundreds of Filipinos may have already been sent home. This is something we need to work through and, hopefully, resolve. We’ll see how we can influence policymaking on immigration,” Marcos said in a mix of Filipino and English.

One of Trump’s campaign promises was to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, with a goal of expelling around 1 million illegal aliens per year.

Earlier, Romualdez revealed that at least 24 undocumented Filipinos have been deported since Trump returned to the White House in January.

He clarified, however, that those deported had criminal records but stressed that “these were not classified as very serious offenses.”

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, an estimated 370,000 undocumented Filipino immigrants are in the US.