President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday denied that he ignored Kyiv’s repeated calls for him to talk with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Philippine leader made the clarification days after a Ukrainian envoy said Manila had yet to respond to multiple requests for a phone call between Marcos and Zelensky to discuss bilateral cooperation.

“There was talk of it a few months ago, pero hindi lang napag-usapan. Nagulat kami when the special envoy came out and said na hindi sinasagot. Sinagot namin, but we didn’t get it scheduled,” the President told reporters en route to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

(It just wasn't discussed. That's why we were surprised when the special envoy came out and said we were not responding. We responded, but we didn’t get it scheduled.)

Denys Mykhailiuk, Chargé d'affaires of the Ukraine Embassy in Malaysia, apologized last week for the misunderstanding over his statement on the phone call, after the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department said that it was not a good diplomatic practice for the envoy to reveal such details to the press.

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Marcos meanwhile said that Manila was “happy to provide any expression of support” that the Ukrainian government would need during its ongoing conflict with Russia.

“I have no problem with talking to President Zelensky, especially now na mainit ang giyera dun sa kanila (that the war there is heating up). So of course we are again on the side of this, and that remains to say that any expressions of support that he might feel is needed, we are happy to provide,” he said.

Asked whether the Philippine government was willing to co-sponsor Ukraine’s peace plan, Marcos said the matter was for Kyiv and Moscow to discuss.

“That’s not for us to decide, those details, are, should there be talks, between Ukraine and Russia. Sila mag-usap dyan (they should talka bout that),” he said.

“We support any effort for peace, anything, basta matigil ang patayan, matigil ang gyera. Yun na muna. And tapos kung paano nila gagawin, what they would do with the territories… and etc, that is really clearly between the 2 countries,” he added.

(We support any effort for peace, anything to stop the killings, to stop the war. How they will do that, what they would do with the territories and etc, that is really clearly between the 2 countries.)

The 10-point peace plan earlier outlined by Zelensky before the United Nations includes the “restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and seeking punishment for Russia’s aggression, including the implementation of sanctions and the creation of a tribunal to punish Russia for invading Ukraine.”

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