Marcos calls Trump, gets asked, 'How's Imelda?'

US President-elect Donald Trump asked President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. how his mother former First Lady Imelda Marcos was in a scheduled phone call between the two leaders.

Marcos said he congratulated Trump for winning the US presidential elections over US Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Kaya’t na-delay itong lakad ko na ito. I was able to schedule a phone call to President-elect Donald Trump, at nakausap ko siya," Marcos told reporters.

"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.)

Marcos said they then discussed the alliance between the Philippines and the US.

"And 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.

Marcos said he told the US president-elect that many Filipinos in the US voted for Trump.

“I also reminded the President-elect that ang mga Pilipino sa Amerika, overwhelmingly...binoto nila si Trump. Kaya’t I’m sure maaalala niya ‘yan, kapag nagkita kami at plano kong makipagkita sa kanya as soon as I can,” Marcos said.

(I told him Filipinos in the US overwhelmingly voted for him, so I am sure he will remember that when we meet and I plan to meet him as soon as possible.) 

”Sabi niya siguro baka nasa White House na siya bago ako makapunta. But anyway, it was a very good call, it was a very friendly call, very productive, I am glad that I was able to do it and I think President-elect Trump was also happy to hear from the Philippines,” Marcos added.

(He said he might already be in the White House before I could visit.) 

The President, however, said he did not discuss the issue of undocumented Filipino immigrants in the US with Trump.

“We didn’t talk about that. It was just a congratulatory call. But, of course, our ambassador is already working on that [concern],” he added.

Before his election victory, Trump promised mass deportation of undocumented or illegal immigrants.

When he won his second presidential term last November 6, Trump said he would use the military for the said mass deportation. 

After Trump’s victory, the Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez called on undocumented Filipino immigrants to not wait for deportation and instead come home to the Philippines as soon as they can. 

Based on the July 2024 report of Washington, US-based Pew Research Center citing 2022 data which is its latest available data, four million out of 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US came from Mexico.

A far second country of origin for undocumented immigrants in the US is El Salvador with 750,000, followed by India with 725,000, and Guatemala with 675,000.

The Philippines ranked 13th out of the top 14 countries of origin of undocumented immigrants with 130,000.

Pew Research Center, according to its website, is a nonpartisan fact tank that “conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.” —NB, GMA Integrated News