MANILA, Philippines — An opposition lawmaker criticized what he called President Rodrigo Duterte’s “skewed double standard” in choosing which foreign aid is acceptable.
“While he rejects assistance from the European Union (EU) because of alleged conditions related to his bloody campaign against drugs, he accepts Chinese pledges of aid and investments despite the overriding condition that the Philippines must not enforce against China the UN-supported arbitral decision of the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal,” Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said, referring to the ruling that said the resource-rich West Philippine Sea is part of the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.
Lagman was reacting to Malacanang’s confirmation it is willing to forego about 250 million Euros ($278.8 million) worth of grants from the European Union because it could allegedly be used to interfere with the country’s internal affairs.
“Accepting EU’s grants is not mendicancy because the grants are being offered without the Philippines begging for them,” he said.
EU Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen previously explained that the EU’s serious concern over the thousands of extrajudicial killings that have marked the administration’s war on drugs is not a condition for the grant.
Lagman also noted that while EU grants are historically delivered and implemented mostly in strife-torn Mindanao, the Chinese assistance was still merely contingent.
He said the “worldwide concern” about the killings of drug suspects was only being echoed by the European Union in the same way 45 out of 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council called for an end to the extrajudicial killings and endorsed the investigation, without any conditions, of human rights violations in the country.
