Philippines Declines EU Aid After Securing Billions From China
The Philippine government has told the European Union it will no longer accept development aid from the bloc, putting at risk programs to assist poor and conflict-hit regions in the country’s south, Europe’s ambassador said on Wednesday. Ambassador Franz Jessen said the decision to cut aid from the EU, a strong critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drugs war, would mean the loss of about 250 million Euros ($278.73 million) worth of grants mostly allocated to Muslim communities. Manila’s move comes days after Duterte won billions of dollars in pledges from China after attending the Belt and Road summit in Beijing. …