The price of diplomatic ignorance

DEMOCRATIC politics is an odd realm. In most other disciplines, willful ignorance is frowned upon; but in politics, it’s celebrated.

The widespread support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s policy – although lately, he’s blamed it on Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd – to reject “conditional” aid from the European Union is an excellent example.

The decision revealed a deep and damaging ignorance of geopolitics the global economy, and yet it is hailed as a step forward for the

Obviously, it is not, and that will become clear as the consequences of Duterte’s stubbornness misanthropy - litical implication of it is the tacit declaration that the Philippine government will no longer even attempt to acknowledge the issue of human - creasingly bloodthirsty public here, but if the public and their adored leadership thinks that the rest of the world will sit back and accept it, they are in for a rude awakening

The bigger concern, however, is what the economic implications of Duterte’s ill-considered declaration backtracked to some degree over the past few days and said that rejection of aid would be “considered on a case-by-case basis,” the nature of aid is such that if Duterte intends to remain true to his word, almost none of what the EU grants the Phil

In direct terms, EU aid amounts to - lion per year), which is roughly equivalent to this year’s combined budget for the Department of Energy, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Tourism, Department of Information and Technology, Commission on Elec - compensate for all that, particularly if its draconian tax increase proposal passes in Congress, but the amount itself is not

Loath as I am to agree with him, as Senator Frank Drilon pointed out over the weekend, the rejection of EU aid poses an immediate threat to the Philippines’ favored status under the EU’s GSP+ (Generalized System of Preferences) tariff exemption program, which would have

Under GSP+, the Philippines may export 6,274 products to the EU country must ratify and implement 27 international conventions on human and labor rights, environment - ditional eligibility requirement is most of its export base consists of primary products, such as minerals or agricultural products – and has a low market share of the EU’s total imports, which the Philippines does, even though from the Philippine perspective the EU is the country’s - ippine exports to the EU amounted

the Philippines was at risk of losing GSP+ eligibility, which it only gained in 2014, because of slow action to adopt the 27 international has simply drawn more attention to the shortcoming, and probably guarantees the country’s eligibility will be withdrawn, because it is not an idle threat on the part of the EU: Sri Lanka was thrown out of the program for the very same reason

Another aspect of the rejection of aid is that it could impact the Philip reject the aid means the government must make a choice between either funding that which the aid previously paid for, or letting those programs and chooses to fund those things itself, the debt-to-GDP ratio increases, as it is unlikely the funding can be entirely sourced from revenues, at least not in - es not to fund them, the economic of the aid deteriorates, which lowers

In the case of just the EU aid, the negative effect would be incremental, but would be magnified very quickly if all “conditional” aid was included, and would be further compounded by the likely loss of the Philippines’ export advantage

But Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano – a living example of the recommendation in the Despot’s Handbook to “never hire someone smarter than yourself” – asserted last week, countries like China and Japan do not attach conditions to their aid offers, so the Philippines will suffer no ill effects from telling the EU to keep

That is, of course, completely wrong, and one of the most glaring examples of the willful ignorance that Duterte’s public supporters are That’s why it’s “aid,” and not something a little more impersonal like as in the wake of a natural disaster, is given with a few strings attached; at a minimum, the recipient country must spend the money for the purpose it is

Japan may attach comparatively fewer conditions to its development aid than other countries, but China has become notorious for practically weaponizing its aid; and so has Russia, The only difference between them and the EU or other Western governments, is that they are subtler about their expectations of the expectations are just as strong, however, and perhaps

No one should want the EU or any - ence Philippine affairs, but adopting a selectively antagonistic position to assert the country’s “independence” will ironically only make that unhelp