MANILA — The Philippines and the United States are working to set up a meeting between Presidents Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Donald Trump “as soon as possible,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said on Saturday. 

“We’re looking at hopefully as soon as possible,” Manalo told reporters in a chance interview when asked about when Marcos Jr. is scheduled to meet the leader of the Philippines’ traditional ally. 

“No specific dates… It’s very hard to schedule,” he added. 

Manalo gave the statement days after his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, and weeks after a phone call between Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and his US counterpart Pete Hegseth. 

READ: Marcos congratulates Trump, says looking forward to ‘working closely’ with new US admin

STRONG COMMITMENT TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC COOPERATION 

The US expressed “a strong commitment” to further strengthen its economic ties with the Philippines, Manalo said. 

“Let me just say that there was a strong commitment to enhance our economic cooperation — both government and private — in addition to any defense and security,” he said. 

“We need to come up with a long list of specific areas when we have a more detailed discussion, but definitely there’s a strong interest in economic progress,” he said. 

“We’ll see how it goes, but definitely on economic cooperation, we are very upbeat.” 

Among the areas that Manila and Washington are looking to develop include energy, cybersecurity and critical minerals, the DFA chief said. 

READ: US defense chief reaffirms 'ironclad' commitment to PH on mutual defense

READ: Manalo, Rubio discuss ‘more invested and enduring relationship’ in Munich meet

WILL US RETAIN $500-M DEFENSE INVESTMENT?

However, there was no clear commitment if the US intends to sustain a $500-million investment to fund the Philippines’ defense upgrade program to deter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. The financial pledge was made in mid-2024, when former US President Joe Biden was still in power. 

“We did not discuss that, but I think we will have more chances to discuss that,” Manalo said. 

“We discussed very general kasi we had a short meeting, but I think we will have other opportunities to discuss it more in detail,” he said. 

Earlier this year, the 45th and 47th President of the United States ordered the review of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) operations, halting foreign aid to several countries including the Philippines. 

When asked to confirm reports that Washington is willing to exempt security funds from the freeze order against the USAID, Manalo said: “Ang sinabi lang sa akin ni Sec. Rubio is that they might look into some exceptions without specifying any particular country.” 

So far, the Philippine government has yet to release how much in foreign aid it expects to lose with the freeze on USAID operations, but the American agency had said that it has obligated $9.27 million in various aid packages for the Philippines for disaster relief items, the management of displacement and emergency shelters, among others in 2024. 

In January, Marcos Jr. said he intends to meet with Trump because “there's much that we need to discuss between the US and the Philippines in terms of trade, in terms of defense and security, and now the new policy on immigration.”