Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to arrive in the country within the month in what President Duterte said would be a “friendly visit” and a “show of solidarity.”
Duterte confirmed Abe’s upcoming during a recent PTV- 4 interview.
“(It’s) just a friendly visit. It really is official because he is an official, he is the Prime Minister,” Duterte said.
Duterte added that they were informed of Abe’s plan to make a trip to the Philippines during his recent state visit to Japan.
“But it was passed on to me as a private confidential matter and during our talks which was really one of the longest that I’ve had had with a sovereign chief of state,” the president said.
He likewise said that the Japanese Prime Minister “was really interested in helping us (through) the investments.”
At the same time, the president said Abe was also interested in visiting his home city of Davao which has a notably large population of Filipinos descended from Japanese who migrated to the Philippines in the early 20th century.
“But most of all he so wanted to visit my place, Davao City. And that is really very easy to solve, it’s not a riddle. Actually, Davao City has the biggest number of Japanese descended Filipinos because the Japanese came here…. way, way back, 1902, dumating sila sa Davao and they developed the Manila hemp, ‘yung abaca ngayon,” according to Duterte. (Elena Aben)