MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Saturday there is a new opportunity for the Philippines to send more workers to Saudi Arabia with its new massive development plan as the Kingdom expands its economy. 

The President said in a media interview at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, that Saudi Arabia’s building boom will need more workers. 

The President had a bilateral meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohamed bin Salman on Friday. 

“Sinabi ko nga nung after the 1973 oil crisis, the building boom of Saudi Arabia was the one [that] instigated the new surge of OFWs and he immediately stopped me and he said that’s not a building boom, the one that’s coming is the building boom, that’s nothing compared to what we are going to do, so we will need more workers, and so that’s another opportunity for us,” Marcos told reporters. 

The President said they also talked about oil and fertilizer supply. 

According to the chief executive, he reminded the Saudi crown prince and Prime Minister that he was sent by his father, the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., to Saudi Arabia in the 1970s to negotiate for the supply of petroleum to the Philippines. 

“Sabi niya, well we can discuss it again. So babalikan natin lahat yun,” said the President. 

“Labor, may mga specifics talaga. Pero sa fuel, oil supply, we touched upon it but we just have to pursue it further. ‘Yung fertilizer mukhang mas madali, baka meron tayong makuha sa kanila,” Marcos pointed out. 

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) announced on Friday that the Saudi Arabia government will pay the unpaid salaries of Filipino workers who worked for Saudi construction companies that went bankrupt in 2015 and 2016. (PND)