President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to meet US President Donald Trump to discuss important concerns, especially on the new White House policy on mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

In an interview with reporters in Cebu on Thursday, Marcos said other matters that he needs to discuss with Trump include defense and security as well as trade between the two countries. Marcos did not say when he intends to meet Trump.

"I will meet with President Trump because I should, because there's much that we need to discuss between the US and the Philippines in terms of trade, in terms of defense and security, and now, the new policy on immigration," he said.

"This is something that we have to work through and hopefully resolve because the Filipinos in the United States, especially, have really formed a very important part already of their workforce. So, we’ll see how we can influence policy-making in terms of immigration," he added.

In a television interview on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said there are 16 Filipinos who are under the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The 16 are in the pipeline of deportation due to overstaying in the US, he added.

"They were caught even before President Trump took office. I see, and you will see that the Trump administration is already implementing the Trump administration's long commitment, long promises, to engage in these mass reputations," he said.

"They seem to know which kinds of overstaying aliens they wanted out, and they were those with pending search warrants, meaning pending criminal offenses in the United States," he added. Robina Asido/DMS