Philippines Still Seeks EU Aid, Only With No Strings Attached
- Manila rebuffing EU grants after links to human rights record
- Philippine-EU ties not affected by dispute, Lopez says
Ramon Lopez.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The Philippines hopes the European Union revives an offer to provide development grants -- but this time without conditions linked to the country’s human rights record, according to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
“We believe that to help a friend and provide aid it must be without conditions,” Lopez said in an interview late Saturday at a meeting of Asia-Pacific trade ministers in Hanoi, Vietnam. “We would appreciate all aid but we would just request that there be no conditions,” he said. “We would simply not want to be questioned and we follow the principle of non-interference and independence in foreign policy.”