As political chaos brews in Manila, Marcos meets ex-UK PM Blair again

On the third day of his erstwhile ally Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with a former world leader who had seen, served, and eventually bowed out of his country’s top post after upheavals both domestic and geopolitical. 

“It was a pleasure to welcome former UK prime minister Sir Tony Blair to Malacañang today.  As one of Britain’s longest-serving prime ministers, he continues to contribute to global conversations on governance and public policy through the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change,” Marcos wrote in a post late Wednesday, July 8. 

No other details about the meeting were made available to the public, either from Marcos himself or Malacañang Palace. 

Marcos and Blair have met several times in the past. 

Their first public meeting with Marcos as president happened in September 2022, on the sidelines of the Philippine President’s working visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly High Level Week. Just over a month later, in October 2022, Marcos welcomed Blair to Malacañang for the first time. The Palace said then that the two “discussed a wide range of topics on bureaucracy and governance based on the best practices in developed countries.”

Months later, they met in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2023, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. 

In April 2024, Blair visited Marcos in Malacañang again, where they discussed “potential collaboration with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on various initiatives.” The meeting, as in 2022, apparently covered peace efforts in Mindanao, food security, climate change, and trade. 

Curiously, no meeting happened in 2025 — a year of upheavals for Marcos. It was that year when his administration sent former president Rodrigo Duterte to the Netherlands, where the latter now awaits trial for crimes against humanity related to his bloody drug war. Months later, his endorsed Senate slate fared poorly in the 2025 midterm elections. It was also in 2025 that the schism between him and Vice President Duterte unsurprisingly deepened even more. 

So, what did Marcos and Blair have to talk about this time?

According to its own website, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change “[helps] governments and leaders turn bold ideas into reality.” How, exactly? “We do it by advising on strategy, policy and delivery, unlocking the power of technology across all three. We do it by sharing our insights so everyone can benefit. And we do it to help build more open, inclusive, and prosperous countries for people everywhere,” read the website of the ‘not-for-profit, non-partisan organization.’

Blair continues to be quite a public figure in his own right, despite having stepped down from office nearly two decades ago, both in domestic and international politics. In May this year, Blair penned a lengthy commentary against the current leaders of the Labour Party, which he once led. 

The Guardian described the essay, published on his institute’s website, as “a highly unusual intervention for a past Labour prime minister.” Current United Kingdom Prime Minister and Labour Party chair Keir Starmer announced his resignation from both posts in late June 2026. 

Marcos is, yet again, at another critical point of his administration, and in its waning years. In less than two years, the 2028 presidential elections are set to take place. Just over a year from now, hopefuls will be filing their candidacies. 

Yet 2028 is already in full swing — prompted, mostly, by Vice President Duterte’s very early announcement of her plans to run for president in 2028. With his numbers still down and economic numbers not exactly looking hopeful (despite the upgrade to an upper-middle income country), Marcos will need all the advice he can muster. – Rappler.com