President Rodrigo Duterte claimed on October 12 that he “refused” the United Kingdom’s offer of $18 to $20 million to the Philippines.
“The latest word from Sonny, ‘yung sa Great Britain, ah, $18 million, 20? Sabi ko kay Sonny, ‘wag mong tanggapin,” Duterte said, referring to Finance Secretary Carlos “Sonny Dominguez.”
“Mabubuhay rin tayo. Anyway, I control the foreign affairs of this government,” he added.
“Anyway, I control the foreign affairs of this government. So ‘yung mga diyan mga noisy na, ‘It will go … the Philippine will go hungry.’ In your ignorance, you are not the one who’d formulated the foreign policy of this country. It is solely the privilege of the Executive department,” Duterte said.
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However, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on October 13 that the Philippines has not received new offer of assistance from the UK.
“At the moment, there is no new offer of direct monetary assistance to the Philippines,” the DFA said in a statement released at past 5pm on October 13, as per Rappler’s report.
“The Philippine government is committed to continued engagement with the UK in furthering our longstanding and mutually beneficial partnership,” the statement added.
Earlier, President Duterte also threatened to expel European diplomats following false information about the EU wanting to expel the Philippines from the United Nations. Malacañang later released a statement admitting to the fact that the President was “being fed the wrong information.”
Sources: ( rappler.com , gmanetwork.com )
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