President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. intends to seek help from Saudi Arabia amid the oil crisis, duplicating the foreign country’s aid to the Philippines back in the 1970s.

During a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Marcos and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman talked about energy and petroleum.

“Napag-usapan namin ang energy, at dahil alam naman natin na ang largest producer ng petroleum sa buong mundo ay Saudi Arabia at tinulungan tayo ng Saudi Arabia nung ‘70s and ‘80s nung nagkaka-oil crisis kaya’t baka sakali naman ay tayo maaring makiusap muli na tulungan ulit tayo (We talked about energy, and because we know that the largest producer of petroleum in the world is Saudi Arabia and that they helped us in the ’70s and ’80s oil crisis, perhaps we can ask them to help us again),” Marcos said.

The President also said he is looking forward to hosting the visit of the Saudi Arabian leader to the Philippines to discuss with him “a wide range of issues and areas of cooperation.

“That would be very good kung makabisita sa atin si Crown Prince at hindi lamang tungkol sa mga labor, pati na yung mga investments na pwede nating gawin (if the crown prince could visit so that aside from labor, we could also tackle investments that we ca do),” Marcos stated.

One of the major gains the President has gotten from his maiden APEC participation came from his meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.

The Saudi Arabia government announced that it would shoulder the unpaid salaries of around 10,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who worked for Saudi construction companies that declared bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016.

Both leaders also discussed the setting up of an insurance system for workers to safeguard them from the same case.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Betheena Unite

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