‘Just an outburst’

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd said the European Union mission in the Philippines must not take seriously the “order” of Duterte for EU ambassadors to leave the country in 24 hours.

“It’s just an outburst,” Pimentel 3rd said.

“If taken in context, EU ambassadors should know that that is not the order to leave. Such a thing would have to come from the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). And I am sure no such order is forthcoming,” he said.

The European Delegation in recent visit of the delegation of the “International Delegates of the Progressive Alliance” to the Philippines on October 8 to Oct. 9 was “not a European Union mission.”

The European Union was not part of the organization or planning of that visit – neither the Delegation of the European Union in the Philippines nor the European Union institutions in Brussels, the delegation added.