EU Ambassador Franz Jessen gave an assessment on the 100 days in office of President Rodrigo Duterte.
EU Ambassador Franz Jessen were among those officials who assessed the first 100 days of President Rodrigo Duterte as the 16th president of the Philippines.
Jessen’s assessment was through an open letter posted on the Facebook account of EU in the Philippines.
According to him, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s first 100 days in office may have been highlighted by an important breakthrough in the peace process with leftist rebels, but the period also saw a lot of changes in terms of “new laguage” with many meanings.
“One hundred days passed very fast, lots of changes, new policies, new language, and many interpretations of statements and developments,” he said in the post.
He further elaborated that through those 100 days, President Duterte had been cussing, swearing, hurling profanities at the EU, the United Nations, as well as US President Barack Obama for their criticisms on the summary killings in the country.
Since Duterte sit as the 16th President on June 30, some 3,000 people were already killed under an intensified drive against illegal drugs.
But in his personal assessment of the first 100 days of Duterte, Jessen said “the ongoing peace process remains an area where President Duterte may have an early and very important breakthrough.”
Jessen also wished that an agreement would be reached in connection to the ongoing second round of peace talks in Oslo, Norway between the Philippine government and the Communist Party-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
“We all hope that an agreement will soon be reached … so that needed peace and stability in Mindanao can be used as a basis for further developments in Mindanao and the Philippines.”
As an EU Ambassador, Jessen assured the Filipinos that the EU-Philippines strong cooperation continues with the successful hosting of the first EU-Philippines Business Summit that gathered 300 businessmen in the previous days.
Despite Duterte’s curses on the European Union, Jessen said European business community remains keen on investing in the Philippines particularly in the area of energy.
