Duterte aides ‘surprised’ by FVR departure

Former President Fidel V. Ramos INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos’ resignation as special envoy to China has caught the government by surprise, presidential aides said on Tuesday even as they scrambled to play it down.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella confirmed Ramos submitted a letter to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea expressing his decision to quit from his post.

“But it will be up to [the President] whether to accept it or not,” Abella said.

This came shortly after Ramos publicly questioned the policies of Mr. Duterte, who has repeatedly cursed US President Barack Obama, the United Nations and the European Union for questioning his tough anti-drugs crackdown which has left more than 3,500 dead.

The 88-year-old former chief executive at the weekend also hit out at Mr. Duterte for opposing the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, calling it “obviously wrong and full of S**T!!!”

The latest statement came after Ramos criticized Mr. Duterte’s first 100 days in office as a “huge disappointment and letdown,” an assessment that contrasted starkly with popular opinion. Ramos had also described President Duterte’s anti-US statements as “discombobulating.”

Surprise

Ramos’ resignation also surprised other members of the Cabinet, among them presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza, a close associate of both leaders.

Dureza, who was in Davao City for the Halloween break, said he had yet to speak with either of the two men and declined to speculate how the resignation would affect efforts to cozy up to China.

“I have no idea. I only learned about it in the media. I was really surprised,” Dureza told the Inquirer. “They’re both my friends. I will have to talk to them first.”

But Ramos on Monday said he had done his job to “break the ice and to help restore the ties of goodwill and friendship” between China and the Philippines.

Mr. Duterte has so far also kept mum on Ramos, but has publicly acknowledged that it was the former president who convinced him to run for the presidency.

Despite his stinging rebuke, Malacañang said Ramos’ “presence” in the Duterte administration was “invaluable.”

“[Ramos] was appointed… as special envoy precisely because of his stature [and] credibility as our elderly statesman and his ability to break the ice with the Chinese government,” Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said.

He credited Ramos for strengthening the diplomatic ties between Manila and Beijing which, he added, “led to the very successful” state visit of Mr. Duterte to China.

Mr. Duterte appointed Ramos as special envoy to China to help repair ties soured by an international arbitration case in a maritime territorial dispute which went in Manila’s favor in July, sparking outrage in Beijing.

Ramos’s decision to quit a job he had barely started was due to the progress made during Duterte’s visit, including what appears to be an end to China’s blockade of a disputed fishing zone, an aide said.

“He has done his job,” a Ramos aide told Reuters. “President Duterte has visited Beijing and our fishermen are back in the disputed Scarborough Shoal. He has accomplished his mission.”