THE European Chamber of Commerce warned Tuesday that the Philippines’ refusal of aid with conditions from the European Union could endanger further assistance from the bloc.
In a recent television interview, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president Guenter Taus said Manila’s decision to no longer accept aid from the EU gives the latter a reason not to offer any help at all.
“It’s difficult to predict but usually, you set precedent as defined, ‘I don’t want your aid.’ What that will trigger very likely is… ‘If you refuse this aid, why would we continue offering aid to the Philippines?’,” Taus said on ANC’s Headstart.
The government last week announced that it will no longer accept the €250-million (P13.89-billion) aid from the EU, one of the country’s biggest donors, because of conditions it sets on the assistance.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Robispierre Bolivar admitted that the agency was not aware of the decision before it was announced.
But newly appointed Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano defended President Rodrigo Duterte, saying the Philippines would no longer accept any aid with strings attached, in line with its “independent foreign policy.”
Taus said it was strange that the Philippines would go to China to ask for a loan while refusing help from Europe.
“At the end of the day, I think it will be pretty difficult for further aid to come into the country from the EU because you said very clearly… ‘Look, we don’t want your aid’,” he added.
He also said that in 30 years that he has been living in the Philippines, it was the first time that the government rejected any help from other countries.
Taus said that it would be normal for any country to voice out its opinion or concern but that does not mean the Philippines should cut any help from them.
“I still believe that we live in a day and age where we can voice out an opinion and concern, and don’t misconstrue it, it is what it is. What is right for me might not be right for you. And vice versa and that’s where dialogue comes in. But to outrightly refuse or reject it, it doesn’t making any sense,” he said.
He said the Philippines, which is visited by at least 20 typhoons a year, will continue to need aid.
He added that the Philippines should reconsider its decision and start a dialogue with the EU before rejecting its aid.
Since 1992, the EU has given the country a total of €2.3 billion or P128.91 billion in aid.
Analyst and De La Salle University professor Richard Heydarian said these grants were donations rather than interest-based loans that China is offering.
Heydarian also said that the EU grants are “not bags of cash handed down to corrupt officials” but are well targeted at capacity-building and strengthening state institutions to provide better basic services.
He acknowledged, however, that the aid came with conditions.
“This is where the Philippines can’t just pick and choose, but will have to either consider full-scale rejection of all aid or consider a compromise with the EU,” Heydarian said.
But the analyst said the EU conditions were nowhere as intrusive or potentially destabilizing as those imposed by agencies such as the International Monetary Fund during the credit crunch of the 1980s and 1990s.
“In fact, the EU has mostly sought to encourage recipient countries to observe labor rights or universal values, enshrined in the United Nations’ charter, such as human rights. If anything, the EU is open to dialogue and partnership with its partners in an event of disagreement or misunderstanding,” he said.
Heydarian said the rejection of EU aid was “classic posturing” by the Duterte administration to silence the bloc’s criticism of the country’s bloody war on illegal drugs.
“It is a risky move, which could jeopardize the interest of many ordinary folks who depend on the EU assistance,” he said.
He stressed that even the Duterte administration rejects EU aid, the bloc will continue criticizing what they view as “undemocratic or inappropriate.”
“The truth is, rejecting the EU’s grants won’t likely stop them from criticizing what they view as undemocratic or inappropriate elsewhere. If anything, it could get worse. In my view, there is still much room for dialogue and mutually acceptable compromise,” he said.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition, meanwhile, called for a comprehensive audit of public debt, not an impulsive and selective rejection of development aid.
“The President’s recent decision to reject EU aid with conditionalities interfering with the Philippines’ internal affairs and the huge loans from China and other lenders for the administration’s ambitious infrastructure program should sound a sense of urgency for Congress to examine whether public debt, the government’s borrowing policies and institutional arrangements on debt management are serving the interest of the people,” said Sammy Gamboa, secretary-general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition.
Gamboa added that the Duterte government is already on the right track with the approval in the 2017 General Appropriations Act of a provision for an audit of 20 national government foreign loans being challenged by FDC as fraudulent.
FDC’s initial research found that the 20 loans were marred by corruption, bloated budgets, violations of legal procedures, lack or insufficient public consultations and used as lender’s conditionality for privatization of essential services such as power and water.
“The findings of a comprehensive audit will provide the basis for the steps that the government can take to address loans that do not benefit the Filipino people, particularly those deemed to have facilitated the lenders’ agenda in the country’s affairs through debt conditionalities,” Gamboa said.