Biden sends US delegation to Manila for BBM inaugural
US President Joe Biden is sending a delegation to Manila led by the husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, to represent him during the inauguration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Thursday.
The designation of a US presidential delegation to Marcos’s inaugural “signals” the importance placed by the US on the renewed Philippine-us relations, a highranking retired Philippine diplomat told the Businessmirror.
In a statement, the White House announced Monday six other members of the US presidential delegation. They are: US Chargé d’affaires to Manila Heather Variava, Virginia Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott,
Nani Coloretti, deputy director of the US Office of Management and Budget, Retired Admiral James “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr., former vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Edgard Kagan, US National Security senior director for East Asia and Oceania and special assistant to Biden, and Chantale Wong, US Director of the Asian Development Bank.
Biden must have been officially invited by President-elect Marcos to attend his inaugural and the US leader accepted the invitation. “As he deems it fit, Biden accepts the invitation and appoints a delegation to represent him,” a senior diplomat who was previously assigned to the US told the Businessmirror.
Emhoff also led the US delegation to the inauguration of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol last month. He also led the US delegation to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in August 2021 and traveled with his wife to Paris in November 2021.
Variava is the highest ranking US diplomat in Manila. The US has no ambassador to Manila yet, although Biden has already nominated Marykay Carlson, a career diplomat, last February 2022. Carlson was confirmed by the US Senate on May 5, 2022.
Rep. Scott’s maternal grandfather is of Filipino ancestry, making him the first American with Filipino ancestry to serve as a voting member of Congress.
Hawaii-born Coloretti, meanwhile, is the highest-ranking Filipino-american official in the Biden administration.
Winnefeld is chief of Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board, independent from the US intelligence community. In an article in 2020, he warned that “winter is coming,” which he meant as an “impending international crisis” involving China.
Kagan, meanwhile, arranged the phone call between Biden and President-elect Marcos in May. He has been instrumental in organizing the Us-asean Special Summit in Washington DC, a few days after the presidential elections in the Philippines.
Manila-based Wong is one of the highest-ranking leaders of US economic and international policy in Asia. She has been a member of the ADB staff since 1999 as environment specialist. She was also America’s first ambassador to out herself as a lesbian.