PH assures EU of openness

Lopez admitted that his recent trip to Europe was aimed at assuring the 28-member bloc that the Philippines was open to dialogue.

He also argued that the country remained qualified under the General System of Preference-plus (GSP plus) program that grants full removal of EU customs tariffs on over 66 percent of product tariff lines.

“There are those being said that we could lose the GSP-plus, and we went there to make sure. There’s an ongoing evaluation, October to December. That’s why we went to Brussels [in Belgium] last September and also in Germany for an investment trip,” Lopez said.

“We were telling them that incidents of those teenagers killed [ during the police’s anti- drug operations] are unfortunate, but we assured them that the President will not tolerate such abuse. That’s why around a thousand policemen were replaced and there is an ongoing investigation,” Lopez added.

Lopez was referring to the deaths of Kian de los Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman in August, among the hundreds of deaths recorded in police operations.

“Moreover, we cited that our country is one of the signatories of the UN Convention on Human Rights, and we adhere to the principle of protecting human rights, as shown by our government’s pro-poor programs such as universal healthcare, conditional cash transfer for the poor, free college education, assisting micro and small enterprises, among others, as well as the President’s willingness to have human right groups to monitor our situation. They were happy with what we told them and appreciate our gesture,” Lopez added.