‘From European eyes’
As of yesterday, there is no indication yet whether President Duterte would accept or decline the EU invitation.
We had a very lively yet dispassionate discussion of the outstanding issues on Philippine relations with the European Union (EU) with no less than the EU Delegation to the Philippines chief of mission Ambassador Franz Jessen.
A Danish national, the EU ambassador was the featured guest in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay weekly breakfast forum we hold every Wednesday at Cafe Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate.
Our discussions with the EU ambassador came at the heels of the newly ratified EU-Philippine Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA). It was only last Monday when the Philippine Senate ratified the PCA which President Rodrigo Duterte endorsed for approval in February 2017.
The PCA will henceforth serve as the institutional framework through which diplomatic, economic, political, cultural and other matters pertaining to Philippine relations will be discussed with the EU composed of 28-member states.
President Duterte has a running feud with the EU over criticisms against his administration’s much reported high number of alleged anti-drug war related extrajudicial killings (EJKs) along with his administration’s push for the 17th Congress to restore death penalty in the Philippines, a policy shift which the EU frowns at. The EU Parliamentarians from Social Democrats, on the other hand, have raised the issue of detention of opposition leader Sen. Leila de Lima.
At the height of his irritation, President Duterte even threatened to expel EU envoys within 24 hours, seeing Europe’s hands to get the Philippines ejected from the UN over these alleged human rights abuses.
During our Kapihan, the EU ambassador confirmed the Philippine government rejected trade assistance worth at least P382 million, or 6.1 million euros, that was supposed to have been implemented under the EUPhilippine Trade Related Technical Assistance in 2017.
In apparent retaliation, the EU warned the removal of the Philippines from enjoying its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+), or the tariff-free entry of our country’s products to the 28 EU-member states for noncompliance to international covenants on human rights.
Amb. Jessen believes the newly ratified PCA would become the proper forum for the EU and the Philippines to clarify and thresh out differences or disagreements on such issues as adherence to rule of law, protection of human rights. These democratic ideals, Amb. Jessen pointed out, are not impositions by the EU. These ideals of a democratic government, he stressed, are the very same ones that the Philippines and the EU committed to abide by as signatory countries to various international agreements and conventions of the United Nations (UN).
A day after the PCA’s ratification, Amb. Jessen announced in our news forum they formally transmitted to Malacanang Palace the official invitation of the EU to President Duterte to come and attend the forthcoming Asia-Europe Summit (ASEM) to be held in Brussels. The 12th ASEM will be held on Oct. 18 to 19 this year in Brussels, Belgium – host country of the EU headquarters.
The ASEM is an Asian-European political dialogue forum to enhance relations and various forms of cooperation among its partners.
The official invitation, of course, was coursed through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in the office of Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano. Thee President and Cayetano are currently in New Delhi attending the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)India commemorative Summit and are set to return to the country tomorrow.
As of yesterday, there is no indication yet whether President Duterte would accept or decline the EU invitation.
Amb. Jessen cited President Duterte’s visit to the EU in Brussels would be a reciprocal gesture on the part of the Philippine leader who chaired the last ASEAN Summit. Held in November last year in Manila, EU Council president Donald Tusk accepted and attended the ASEAN-Europe 40th commemorative summit at the invitation of President Duterte.
Amb. Jessen hopes the Philippine leader will have a positive perception of the EU once exposed to complexities of its relations with their bloc. “I would very much like him (President Duterte) to go there and maybe also to develop his understanding of Europe and what we’re doing in Europe. We are not spending all our time criticizing the Philippines,” Amb. Jessen quipped.
A good friend, De La Salle political science professor Richard Heydarian joined as reactor during our breakfast forum and engaged us in a refreshing panel discussion on EU. Prof. Heydarian noted our bilateral economic relations with the EU has never been as good but political relations have suffered unexpected regression in recent years.
“Not advertising itself,” Heydarian correctly noted, EU has been helping the Philippines in many economic and development fronts. In a low-key manner, he said, the EU has been extending large-scale development and peace-building aids to Mindanao. Heydarian particularly found interesting a little known EU project which Amb. Jessen revealed during our Kapihan forum about a chicken farm set up as a drug rehabilitation pilot project to help drug users find and start a new life.
Disclosure: Together with Prof. Heydarian, Bernie Magkilat of Manila Bulletin; Paterno Esmaquel of Rappler and Marit Stinus-Cabugon, columnist of The Manila
Times, we were part of the EU Journalists Programme sent to the EU headquarters in Brussels from Dec. 2-8 last year by invitation of the office of Amb. Jessen. Claire Jiao of CNN-Phl failed to join us but she was our human GPS during our Brussels trip. Thanks to former journalist now with EU press office, Thelma Gecolea for coordinating the guesting of Amb. Jessen in our Kapihan. She was our minder during the Brussels trip.
The ambassador reiterated a visit by President Duterte would be an opportunity to “develop an understanding of Europe” which in itself is going through major changes. He hopes President Duterte will accept the EU invitation so he could “see from the European eyes” shared values and ideals with the Philippines.