Palace details PHP277-M expense for Duterte’s 2016 foreign trips

Malacañang on Thursday gave a breakdown on the government’s PHP277.386-million expenditure for President Rodrigo Duterte’s 12 foreign trips last year. (Photo: Rody Duterte/Facebook)

MANILA—Malacañang on Thursday gave a breakdown on the government’s PHP277.386-million expenditure for President Rodrigo Duterte’s 12 foreign trips last year.

The breakdown of the expenses for the President’s trips was provided by Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella during a Palace press briefing.

Abella said that for President Duterte’s ASEAN Summit working visit to Brunei Darussalam, Laos People’s Democratic Republic and Indonesia on Sept. 5-9, 2016, the government spent PHP29.876 million.

For the Sept. 28-29 official working visit to Vietnam — PHP 14.082 million.

The state visit to Brunei Darussalam and People’s Republic of China on Sept.

16-21, 2016 — PHP 45.266 million.

Japan official visit on Oct. 25-27, 2016 — PHP 28.305 million.

The official visit to Thailand and Malaysia last November 9-10 — PHP 23.721 million.

Meanwhile, for the APEC meeting in Peru including a layover in New Zealand made November 17-23 the expense was pegged at PHP86.

558 million.

And for the Dec. 13-16, 2016 Cambodia and Singapore state visits — PHP4.9.578 million.

Earlier Tuesday, Abella told Palace reporters that the government spent around PHP277 million for President Duterte’s foreign travels but did not provide a breakdown.

“We’re glad to report the windfall of President Duterte’s official foreign visits last year. The President made a total of seven foreign trips, visiting a total of 12 countries since he took office. These visits incurred a total of about PHP277 million in expenses, which included airfare, charter lease and others,” Abella said.

He said these official trips are part of the President’s obligation to maintain and strengthen diplomatic ties with neighboring countries.

He added that Duterte has clinched numerous economic investments and commitments amounting to billions of pesos that would generate thousands of jobs in the following years during those visits.

“The visit to China, however, resulted in more than 20 agreements with an estimated total value of USD4 billion and will generate over a 100,000 jobs,” Abella said.

The agreements include a 50 million Renminbi grant for drug rehabilitation facilities and another 50 million Renminbi million grant for law enforcement-related equipment.

Meanwhile, he said that the trip to Japan yielded about USD1.85 billion worth of investment commitments that would generate about 250,000 jobs in the next few years.

“There were also about five government-to-government agreements signed, including the exchange of note and agreements up to USD184 million,” Abella said.