Philippine Leader Walks Back Threat to Expel EU Diplomats

The Philippines backpedaled Friday on President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to expel European Union (E.U.) diplomats within 24 hours, saying his outburst was apparently based on wrong information.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte was expressing his anger Thursday after the Progressive Delegates – a group including European politicians – called on his government to end its drug war that has left thousands of people dead.

Abella said the group misrepresented itself as an E.U. mission, and that a “conversation” between Filipino and E.U. officials was on-going to clear the air.

The envoys, he said, would not be expelled.

“There’s no directive to do that,” Abella said.

Duterte was apparently reacting to the seven-man Progressive Delegates and not to the entire European bloc, according to Abella.

He said the E.U. delegation in Manila had issued a “clarification” on the issue.

“So, the President reacted as any leader would when national sovereignty is violated,” Abella said.

Duterte made the threat on Thursday, weeks before the Philippines was to host a summit of Southeast Asian leaders and their European Union and U.S. counterparts.

The Europe-based International Delegates of the Progressive Alliance visited Manila recently and called on his government to end its drug war immediately or risk losing preferential trade rights.

In a statement Thursday, the E.U. said it sought to distance itself from the group and that the regional bloc still enjoyed strong diplomatic and trade relations with Manila.

Duterte had emphasized that as president he had the “sole privilege” to decide on matters of external affairs. He had also accused the E.U. of interfering in the country’s domestic affairs, alleging it wanted to have Manila removed from the United Nations. Duterte did not cite evidence to support his allegations.
“You think we’re a bunch of morons here,” Duterte said in his speech at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila. “The ambassadors of those countries listening now, tell me. Because we can have the diplomatic channel cut tomorrow. You leave my country in 24 hours. All. All of you.”
The alliance had also warned that Manila risked losing a preferential trade deal allowing more than 6,200 products duty-free entry into the 28 nation-bloc if it failed to stop the killings in the country’s battle against drugs.

The General System of Preferences (GSP) deal is under review and the EU report on the Philippines is expected as early as January 2018.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who recently visited E.U. states to discuss the GSP deal, emphasized Friday that the Philippines enjoyed collaborative programs with Europe.

“The reason why we went there, is that we wanted to show that we are open to dialogues and that we would like to update them on many things, in relation to our ability to keep the GSP Plus,” he told reporters.

He said he told European officials not to be carried away by news about the Philippines, even as he acknowledged there were problems that Duterte was trying to solve.

“We told them that our country is even one of the signatories to the Convention on Human Rights and that until now, we adhere to the principles of protecting human rights,” he said.

But the Philippine delegation also stressed that Duterte did not like the fact that Filipinos were being viewed as being stepped on.

“So, we presented these stories,” he said, adding that the delegation was “correcting misperceptions” in the process.

He said that those highlighted recently in the free press were “isolated cases” and that the real story was that the crime rate has gone down.

“And we told them in neighborhoods, the streets have been cleaned up of bad guys, there were no more robberies,” he said. “Because discipline and rule of law has been brought back.”

Almost 4,000 suspected drug users and dealers have been shot dead in police operations since Duterte took power in June last year, according to official police tally. Thousands of others have been killed by alleged vigilantes.