FVR’s assessment worth looking into

MANILA – Malacanan expressed openness on Monday to look into the assessment of former President Fidel Ramos in the performance of the Duterte administration in its first three months in office.

In a chance interview, Abella said that the government respects the opinion of the former president.

“Former President Ramos is a senior statesman and he’s acting in a sense like a father. He’s not referring to the actual actions; he’s referring to the public relations, foreign relations that tend to be affected by the President’s language. So in the sense, yes, we listen to him, we respect him,” Abella said.

“He has his opinion, he has his concerns, especially regarding foreign relations and these are also worth looking into,” he added.

The presidential spokesperson issued the statement following the analysis of Ramos that the Philippines is “losing badly” in the first 100 days of the Duterte administration.

Ramos, who was among the key political figures who convinced Duterte to run for president in the May 9 polls, lamented that the latter had been stuck “in unending controversies about extrajudicial killings of drug suspects and in his ability at using cuss-words and insults instead of civilized language.”

“The overall assessment by this writer, we find our team Philippines losing in the first 100 days of Du30’s (Duterte) administration – and losing badly. This is a huge disappointment and letdown to many of us,” Ramos said in his two-part opinion piece published in newspaper Manila Bulletin last Saturday.

Ramos, however, said that Duterte still has “enough time to correct the most serious flaws in both our national leadership and national team.”

Asked if Duterte would listen to Ramos, Abella said, “The President is a wiseman.”

“I cannot presume on what the President will do. But I’m sure, you know, we understand where each one is coming from. Each one has its own perspective. But the President is his own person,” he added.

Meanwhile, Abella asked the public to be more understanding of the President’s plans for the country. SUNNEX