UK envoy wrong on Phl’s negative change – Palace

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang disputed yesterday British Ambassador Asif Ahmad’s claim that change has come to the Philippines but not in a good way under the Duterte administration.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Ahmad’s statement does not reflect the sentiment of Filipinos.

Ahmad had expressed concern over the alleged extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders in the country, something that he said raised questions among investors.

“More than eight of 10 Filipinos trust the President and the same number is satisfied with his administration’s performance in its campaign against illegal drugs and appreciates how it handles criminality,” the President’s spokesman said.

Abella said international financial institutions like the World Bank, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. and credit rater Standard & Poor’s have raised their growth projections for the Philippines for this year.

Manila-based lender Asian Development Bank has also expressed support for the administration’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda and is ready to fund the country’s development projects, he added.

“Confidence – both business and consumers – is high in the Duterte administration,” he stressed.

“One wishes diplomats were more familiar with life beyond the rarefied atmosphere of gated villages,” he added, apparently referring to Ahmad’s residence in Forbes Park, Makati.

In an interview Monday night at his Forbes Park residence, Ahmad said the issues he dealt with when he first arrived in the country were public private partnerships or PPP, the Bangsamoro peace process and Charter change. 

He also expressed reservations over the plan to reinstate the death penalty, saying it could deal a “severe blow” to the Philippines, a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to the Second Optional Protocol of the ICCPR on the abolition of the death penalty.