U.S. President Joe Biden invites President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines to visit United States

By Edward Era Barbacena

Source: CNN 

United States President Joe Biden has invited President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. for a visit to Washington D.C., Philippine envoy to US Jose Manuel Romualdez said.

“Yes, invited pero wala pang agreed date (but there is still no agreed date yet),” Romualdez said in a message to CNN Philippines.

According to Romualdez, US Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff personally handed Biden’s invitation letter to Marcos.

Emhoff, husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris, attended Marcos’ inauguration to lead the US delegation

Deputy State Secretary Wendy Sherman earlier said Marcos could still come to the US despite a contempt judgement by US court because he is the head of the state.

“He has diplomatic immunity, so he is welcome in the Unites States,” Sherman said in an earlier briefing.

In a 1992 settlement with the Ramos administration, the Marcoses agreed to share their wealth with the government, but it was considered a violation of the 1991 decision of the US District Court of Hawaii prohibiting the Marcoses from touching their US assets as these could be sources of payment to martial law victims.

In 2012, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down a contempt order against the estate of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his wife Imelda, and their only son for violating an injunction that barred them from dissipating their assets. The court has required them to pay $353.6 million for dissipating their assets.