President Bongbong Marcos: Philippines’ Image Boosted by Carlos Yulo and Sofronio Vasquez

Thanks to the high-profile wins of a world-class Filipino athlete and singer in international competitions, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s thinks the Philippines is off to a “strong start” in boosting its international image, and government can’t afford to lose the momentum. 

The President was referring to double Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo, and Sofronio Vasquez, who took home the trophy in the latest season of American TV talent competition The Voice. 

Marcos made the statement during a meeting with select members of his Cabinet.

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“We have to maintain the momentum,” he said. “There is already momentum. It doesn’t hurt that we have people like Sofronio winning The Voice and that we had Caloy Yulo winning the Olympics.

“All of these things that our people are doing is great for the Philippines,” he added. “And then we’re still living off the wonderful performance of Filipino health workers during Covid. That won’t be forgotten.”

Afterwards, the President instructed the Department of Budget and Management to reinstate the P400-million branding and marketing budget of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in an effort to extend the goodwill Yulo and Vasquez earned for the country. According to a news statement from the Presidential Communications Office, the amount will be coming from Marcos’ own contingency fund.

Yulo is the country’s first-ever athlete to win two Olympic gold medals for the country, taking home the medals for the floor exercise and vault events. Vasquez, meanwhile, is the first Filipino and the first Asian male winner of the long-running singing competition in the U.S. 

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco had earlier met with President Marcos and his economic managers to ask that the DOT’s branding budget be reinstated. Frasco highlighted the DOT’s achievement of a 41-percent increase in visitor receipts to P760 billion ($13.1 billion) in 2024 compared to 2019. She said the surge was due to the agency’s “Love the Philippines” campaign.

However, only 5.95 million international visitors arrived in the Philippines last year, which is way below the DOT’s target of 7.7-million. Of the arrivals number this year, 5.44 million were foreign passport holders, while the rest, at 510,383, were overseas Filipinos, described as Philippine passport holders permanently residing abroad.

The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), the DOT’s marketing arm, was given a P40-million subsidy under the 2025 budget. The TPB is targeting to attract 6.3 million in visitor arrivals this year from its 13 key markets: South Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia. 

Around 4.57 million foreign tourists arrived from all 13 markets last year, way above the target of three million TPB committed under the General Approriations Act of 2024.

The TPB promotes the Philippines to key source markets, while the DOT markets to so-called opportunity markets, or countries from which arrivals have grown by 10 percent annually.