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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
February 21, 2025 | 5:25pm
File photo of Surangel Whipps Jr., president of Palau.
Earth Negotiations Bulletin website
MANILA, Philippines — Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. is scheduled to visit the Philippines from Sunday to Monday, February 23 to 24, for an official visit, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) announced on Friday, February 21.
Palau is an island country in the Pacific Ocean, within the region of Micronesia. It is part of the continent of Oceania.
Whipps is set to visit President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“At their bilateral meeting, President Marcos is expected to exchange views with his Palau counterpart on expanding existing bilateral cooperation on fisheries, trade, investment, connectivity and people-to-people ties as well as exploring new avenues of collaboration such as on health and labor. The two leaders will also discuss South-South cooperation, regional concerns and common advocacies at the multilateral arena,” the PCO said in a statement.
The PCO said that there are 3,000 Filipinos who live and work in Palau, which is already 17% of the island country’s population. Palau has a meager population of 18,000 as of 2024, according to the BBC.
The Philippines and Palau will celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations in 2027.
Both countries have overlapping claims in maritime territories, which they have both bowed to resolve in 2021. Such talks were, however, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Philippines also previously had an embassy in Palau but was shut down in 2012 due to budget constraints.
According to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, then-Palau President Johnson Toribiong had appealed to the late president Benigno Aquino III not to close the embassy in Palau, as many of the migrant workers in Palau are from the Philippines.
