Tokyo—President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday praised Filipino workers in Japan for their work ethic, saying he hardly needed to convince potential investors that they were skillful, hardworking, and honest.
“Everyone we talk with says you don’t need to convince us on how skillful Filipinos are because we have employees, we have someone who we knew, we have friends and we know that Filipinos are kind, hardworking… honest—and also English-speaking,” the President said at a meeting with the Filipino community in Japan at the Belle Salle Tokyo Nihonbashi.
“All who we can talk with, they say that ‘you don’t need to convince us on how skillful the Filipinos are because we have employees, we have someone who we knew, we have friends, and we know that Filipinos are kind, hardworking, they’re honest, and also English speaking.” the President said.
“What we are discussing is what we need to do for our partners with who we’re planning new things.” Mr. Marcos added.
The President told the attendees about the importance of fostering partnerships and alliances amid global turbulence and the threat of climate change.
“All of these are needed to be discussed and need further study so that our plans would be accurate and also for new businesses,” Mr. Marcos pointed out.
The Chief Executive also assured them of continued support through the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) led by Secretary Susan Ople. Mr. Marcos was on the final day of his official trip to Japan to strengthen Manila and Tokyo’s collaboration in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, renewable energy, digital transformation, defense, and infrastructure. He arrived back in Manila at 8 p.m.
A total of 35 investment agreements on various areas of cooperation have been sealed between the Philippines and Japan on Friday, witnessed by President Marcos and his official delegation.
Apart from these deals, the Philippines also sealed bilateral agreements with Japan to boost cooperation in various fields, including infrastructure development, defense, agriculture, and information and communications technology.