EU does not meddle in domestic affairs, envoy says

MANILA, Philippines -  The European Union (EU) does not meddle in the Philippines’ internal affairs and will continue to extend aid to the country in accordance with domestic laws and international statutes, its envoy said yesterday.

Ambassador Franz Jessen also pushed for closer coordination between the EU and the Philippines so that any discussion between them is based on the correct premise and misunderstandings could be avoided.

“We have a close partnership that goes for many, many years and in that partnership we have a tradition of being frank and open in our discussions,” Jessen told reporters.

“When you have partners you also speak in the spirit of that partnership, and that’s what we do with respect to the Philippines, and we seek to treat each other with mutual respect,” he said.

Jessen said the close cooperation and partnership between Europe and the Philippines spanning 54 years have been mutually beneficial and continue to evolve significantly.

President Duterte on Thursday again spewed expletives at the EU after some of its institutions criticized the administration’s brutal campaign against drugs.

The EU is currently engaging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which the Philippines chairs this year, for a free trade agreement, which hinges on the human rights records of the Southeast Asian group.

It also extended preferential or zero-tariff on Philippine products but this may be put in jeopardy if the EU finds the country violating international human rights conventions.

Jessen stressed the EU is not imposing international conventions on the Philippines. He said the United Nations conventions have been signed by the Philippines outside of the EU.

He pointed out the EU and the Philippines share a “large overlap” of common concerns, such as fighting drugs, pro-poor agenda, combating climate change, the peace process and stopping corruption and criminality.

He said comments from EU officials should be taken in context, as similar dialogues have been taking place with Vietnam and China on many issues, including human rights.

He said there have been some “misunderstandings” between both sides, like Duterte’s allegation that the EU wants to put up centers in the country where illegal drugs are to be distributed, but fortunately this has been clarified.

“Whatever we do in this country is, by definition, in accordance with domestic law. To suggest that the EU suggests to do something illegal in the drug sector is simply not good,” he said.

He lamented the EU is also a constant victim of “fake news” in social media and some questionable websites.

Jessen said one common falsehood that he comes across in social media comments – and finds difficult to understand how it came about – is that the EU does not want the Philippines to pursue an independent foreign policy.

He said the EU is geographically very far from the Philippines so they do not share direct security concerns but only those of global scale.

“We (EU) clearly do not have a territorial dispute with the Philippines,” he said, in reference to the conflicting claims between the Philippines and China over a portion of the South China Sea.

“It’s very important that messages that are coming out of the Philippine government also reflect the reality. We’re not here to have a discussion that is based on the wrong premises. We have to make sure that when we discuss, when we have disagreements – fortunately we don’t have many –that these are conducted in the correct premise,” he said.

Jessen said the EU, for its part, is doing everything it could to convey accurate and timely information amid the proliferation of fake news.

He said the EU is not an easy institution to understand as it is composed of 28 member states.

He also maintained the recent action of the EU Parliament had nothing to do with the EU executive branch of which he is part.

“We don’t speak for political groups,” he said.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez also expressed hope that trade and investment between the Philippines and Europe will not be influenced by the continuous tirades of Duterte against the EU.

Lopez is keeping his fingers crossed that investors would be able to separate business from politics.

He said “those criticizing (Duterte) should also face the fact that you made a comment, you intervene with another country in which they shouldn’t, then you should face the consequence if there is a reaction,” Lopez added.

So far, however, Lopez said Duterte’s verbal assaults have not made an impact to the Philippines and EU trade and investment as negotiations in various areas are continuing.

No blanket  condonation

As this developed, Malacañang clarified uniformed personnel could not go on a killing spree despite Duterte’s assurance that he will grant pardon to members of the police and military charged for following his orders to neutralize drug suspects under certain conditions.

“These statements should not be taken as blanket condonation of criminal acts. It is a statement of a superior standing by his own directives regarding specific operations,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said yesterday.

The President has been saying authorities could kill drug suspects if they fight back but cases of “nanlaban” or those who supposedly fired at arresting policemen or resisted arrest have also been under question.

Abella made the clarification for the nth time amid fresh concerns that Duterte’s statements would eventually set free Supt. Marvin Marcos and his men who were responsible for the killing of Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. during a pre-dawn raid at a local prison facility last year.

He said police who commit criminal acts would be subject to investigation but would be entitled to due process.

“The procedures will be strictly observed without presidential intervention,” he said.

Abella said it is also too early to assume that Marcos and his colleagues, charged with Espinosa’s murder, would benefit from the Chief Executive’s newest pronouncements.

However, Abella noted the Chief Executive has been vocal about supporting Marcos and his team who are now facing charges for Espinosa’s death. “He did say that he will stand by them,” the spokesman said.

Duterte has expressed public support for Marcos while he fumed about Espinosa’s reported drug links, indicating at one point that he deserved his brutal death.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)’s findings showed  Espinosa died in a rubout orchestrated by policemen from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Eastern Visayas led by Marcos. 

The NBI ruled out the police team’s claim that Espinosa and his fellow inmate, Raul Yap, were killed after they shot it out with the police officers inside the Leyte sub-provincial jail last Nov. 5.

Not yet off  the hook

A top official of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) reiterated that the Duterte administration is not yet cleared in the alleged cases of extrajudicial killings committed in connection with the war on illegal drugs.

Reacting to the statement of his fellow CHR commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana that they have not yet found any evidence that the killings were “state-sponsored,” commissioner Roberto Cadiz said no conclusion has been made yet in their investigation.

“Our investigations are still ongoing. Thus, we cannot yet conclude that the extrajudicial killings of drug-suspects are state-sponsored. Conversely, we cannot also yet conclude that the administration is not engaged in state-sponsored killings,” Cadiz said.

“Commissioner Gana may have been misunderstood. She was explaining the CHR’s rigor in arriving at a conclusion, in keeping with the CHR’s championing of due process, which might have given the wrong impression that she was defending, if not prematurely exonerating, the administration of President Duterte from involvement in extrajudicial killings,” he added.

Gana, head of the CHR task force investigating extrajudicial killings, was previously quoted in a report as saying the commission has not found evidence that the deaths were state-sponsored.

She later clarified that they have not ruled out anything in their investigation.

In his statement, Cadiz admitted that state-sponsorship of killing would be difficult to prove.

“It’s not something one expects to find as written policy. It may be established, however, circumstantially,” he said. “Certain pronouncements by officials might have to be assessed in relation to their effect on state agents, particularly the police. Are the killings by policemen encouraged, rather than discouraged?”

The CHR noted that Duterte never denounced the killings, sometimes even appearing to have been inciting violence by repeatedly stating that drug suspects must die.

He also promised to protect policemen who would kill suspects that fight back in operations.

While defending the police involved in the killing of drug suspects, Duterte has been lashing out at critics of his campaign against illegal drugs, including foreign groups like the European Union.

– With Janvic Mateo, Richmond Mercurio