Malacañang is lining up outspoken supporters of the Ramos and the Arroyo administrations to defend President Duterte amid the international backlash over the numerous alleged extrajudicial killings since he took office and his infuriating and insulting remarks against world leaders and the country’s allies.
Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella announced that starting on Tuesday he would invite “significant people” in business and government to make short briefings on how Mr. Duterte performed in his first 100 days. But as it has turned out, Abella brought in longtime backers of former Presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo—
from Donald Dee to Peter Wallace to Joe Almonte.
Ramos and Arroyo are political allies of Mr. Duterte.
First on tap was businessman George Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a trustee of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, two business groups that stood behind Ramos and Arroyo.
Barcelon said that for all his faults, the President was at least “humble and honest,” he listens, and that “his heart was in the right place.”
Abella also invited Employers Confederation of the Philippines president Donald Dee, who had served as Arroyo’s special trade negotiator. Dee cast the blame for the President’s diplomatic fallout to what he describes as a bad Filipino trait.
“People always say, the President is saying this, the President is saying that and always the sad part about our society—and really this is more our society—because we always shoot ourselves on the feet. We always criticize ourself. If you go to Singapore, no matter what happens, what government says, they will never say that, ‘our president is like this or our prime minister is like that,’” said Dee.
On the human rights issue, Dee said the President was prone to “exaggeration” and “anger” largely because of his “intense desire to see his objective done.”