Malacanang expressed optimism that foreign direct investments in the country will improve as a result of President Rodrigo Duterte's foreign trips.

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella acknowledged the drop of FDI in the first half of the year.

But he added, "the president travels in order to attract these things. And we need to understand this is all within a year yet, less than a year, actually."

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Tuesday foreign direct investments inflows posted at $307 million in July, lower than $493 million during the same period last year.

For the January to July period, foreign direct investment inflows reached $3.9 billion, 16.5 percent lower than $4.7 billion net inflows in the last period last year, the BSP said.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has expressed serious concern over the significant drop on equity capital investments, which are new investments, during the first half of 2017.

He cited the data of the BSP, showing net equity capital from January to June fell by 90.3 percent to $141 million from $1.4 billion a year ago.

But in the same BSP data, net equity capital was just part of the whole FDI net inflows, which hit $3.6 billion during the first semester, 14 percent lower than the $4.2 billion posted in the same period last year.

For June alone, FDI went up by 182.7 percent to $674 million from $238 million for the same month in 2016.

Abella believed that the FDI figures would recover, noting, "the President has given us assurance that his whole intention is to finish his term...he said he wanted to lay a foundation for a comfortable life for all.

"And he’s in fact, he’s looking forward to beyond 2022. Not for himself, but for the rest of the administration, for other administrations to come in, in order to bring in a decent life for the Filipino, inclusively for every Filipino," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS