Statement of the NDFP International Office
Marcos Jr’s upcoming Euro-trip from March 11-15 to ink maritime security deals with Germany and the Czech Republic is a brazen display of warmongering disguised as diplomacy, and of political frivolity and extravagance.
While millions of Filipino toiling masses struggle with intensified economic hardship and calamities that demand urgent attention, Marcos Jr instead indulges in a lavish escapade to Europe right off the heels of his failed attempt to use the Australian Parliament to whitewash his regime’s bloody track record, where Greens Senator Janet Rice criticized him for his regime’s human rights abuses.
Instead of focusing on domestic issues, Marcos prioritizes bootlicking US military allies, further escalating inter-imperialist tensions between China and the US. Rallying US allies to increasingly get involved in the West Philippine Sea row serves the US imperialist design of provoking Beijing while implementing the US ‘Island Chain Strategy’ of maritime containment. This trip exposes Marcos’ unwavering subservience to his US imperialist masters by supporting US war preparations in Asia at the expense of public funds and the looming threat to Philippine sovereignty.
Marcos’ trip to Europe is also a self-serving political spectacle, squandering taxpayers’ money under the pretense of ‘fostering bilateral cooperation.’ During budget deliberations in the GRP congress last year, the Office of the President requested a 71% hike in its travel budget request for 2024. In fact, these visits to Europe mark Marcos’ 5th and 6th trips in 2024 alone. Aside from Australia, Marcos was just in Vietnam last January and attended a royal wedding in Brunei earlier this year.
By prioritizing F1 race shows in Singapore (in fact, Marcos has not missed attending an F1 race since assuming office in 2022), and his other foreign junkets, Marcos reveals his penchant for useless displays of foreign diplomacy, his profound detachment from the realities faced by the Filipino toiling masses, and his blind adherence to US imperialist prodding. #
