‘No ban’ on grants from EU
THE DUTERTE administration will decline foreign governments’ offers for aid only if they are not aligned with the government’s priority programmes and projects, and if there are preconditions to such grants, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since the report on the country turning down a grant from the European Union came out, the head of the government economic team said there was no ban on grants from the EU. He said grants would be accepted especially if they were to be poured into infrastructure projects.
“There were two things involved in that. First of all, for the last six months, our President has been talking about, particularly the EU, interfering in our internal affairs. If you’re a Cabinet member, you have to listen to what the President is saying so that when an issue comes before you, you have to alert him and say ‘there is something that doesn’t seem totally in sync with what you have been saying.’” Dominguez said in an interview Friday night. President Duterte had said it was Dominguez himself who advised him to decline the grant.
“So we alerted him and he said ‘you’re right, this is an issue, and you’re right, we should take a hard stance here and say we will not allow people to interfere in our internal affairs,’” Dominguez said.
