Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said he will attend the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
Romualdez, in a Viber message to GMA News Online, said that envoys of various countries were invited to the event which will be held at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
Asked if President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was invited to Trump’s inauguration, Romualdez replied, “As a matter of policy, no head of state is invited.”
“Only ambassadors represented in Washington are invited,” he added.
Asked if he will attend Trump’s inauguration, Romualdez replied, “Yes.”
Marcos called Trump to congratulate him after the latter won his second term as US president in November 2024.
In the same phone call, the President said Trump asked about the health of the Philippine President’s mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos.
“Ang kaibigan niya talaga, mother ko. Kilalang-kilala niya ‘yung mother ko. Kinukumusta niya, ‘How is Imelda?’ Sabi ko, binabati ka nga,” Marcos said on the sidelines of relief distribution in typhoon-hit Catanduanes.
(This is why I was late to this event. I scheduled a phone call with President-elect Donald Trump and talked to him. He’s friends with my mother and he knew her well. He asked, “How is Imelda?” I told him she was sending her best.)
In addition, Marcos said they then discussed the alliance between the Philippines and the US.
“I expressed to him our continuing desire to strengthen that relationship between our two countries, which is a relationship that is as deep as can possibly be because it has been for a very long time,” Marcos said then.
Trump served as the 45th President of the United States from 2016 to 2020, but lost his run for a back-to-back term in November 2020 to US President Joe Biden.
Trump, however, initially refused to accept poll results and urged his supporters to storm the US Capitol to stop the certification of the poll results, resulting in the infamous January 6 insurrection.
The January 6 incident subjected over 100 US Capitol and Metropolitan police officers under assault by the rioters.
In November 2024, Trump beat US Vice President Kamala Harris for the US presidency. —KG, GMA Integrated News
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