Trump plans to attend Asean meet in Manila in November

TRUMP (AP)

UNITED States President Donald Trump plans to visit the Philippines in November to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting, the new Philippine ambassador to the United States confirmed on Wednesday.

During the Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing for his confirmation, new Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez said that Trump plans to visit the country in the second week of November.

“I was informed by the (Philippine) embassy in Washington and the US embassy here that President Trump is planning to be here sometime around the second week of November to attend the Asean meeting,” Romualdez told the CA committee on foreign affairs.

In April, US Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Trump’s visit to the Philippines to attend the 31st Asean Summit and the East Asia Summit.

Illegal immigrant

While there has been no mass deportation that has taken place under the Trump administration, Romualdez assured the members of the CA that the government is ready to assist Filipino illegal immigrants in the US.

“There has been no mass deportation that has taken place during the Trump administration,” Romualdez said.

“However, I think as the ambassador to the United States, we will try our best to try and help our Filipinos in the situation like this,” he added, referring to Filipinos staying illegally in the US.

There are about 300,000 Filipino illegal immigrants in the US, Romualdez said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has earlier said that these undocumented immigrants should come home once Trump implements tougher immigration policy.