By Robina Asido

Former Senator Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. said Japan's ambassador expressed interest in seeing more Filipinos employed in his country.

Marcos said during the courtesy call Monday morning Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko said the government of Japan wants to see an increase Filipino employment in their country.

"Japan would like to see an increase of employment of Filipinos ," he said.

The Japanese ambassador was one of four diplomats who paid a courtesy call on Marcos, whose big lead in the unofficial count for president in the May election will be confirmed when Congress starts canvassing the votes on Tuesday.

During the visit, Marcos said Kazuhiko also presented the projects under the Official Development Assistance of the Japanese government to the Philippines as well as other possible areas of cooperation between the two countries.

"With the Japan Ambassador we spoke about some of the ODA projects, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) ODA, that possibly we can pursue, He showed us many possibilities in terms of infrastructure, in terms of transportation infrastructure, in terms of the usual horizontal infrastructure and also in terms of employment," he said.

The ambassadors of South Korea and India and United States Charge d’Affaires Heather Variava made courtesy calls separately on Marcos.

Marcos said in his meeting with them, he emphasized the importance of global partnership to help boost the economy from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I reminded them, that I think in this pandemic the recovery cannot be done by only one country. Even rich countries need partnership, '' he said. ''I think we are all in an agreement, that is going to be the situation." DMS