MANILA, Philippines – Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirades against the European Union (EU), the EU is considering a P6-billion grant for Mindanao, particularly to help war-ravaged Marawi City.

The possible EU grant is equivalent to 100 million euros.

Jessen talked about this on Thursday, October 26, in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the 4th Energy Smart Philippines forum at Shangri-La, The Fort.

“It is very important to have peace and stability for the Philippines and for the attraction it gives to EU investors,” Jessen said.

Jessen said that in giving this grant, the EU wants to ensure that the money will go to the intended beneficiaries.

“Obviously when we support say Mindanao, we want the money to go to Mindanao. You can say this is a condition, you can say it should go to Marawi,” Jessen said.

“For me, that’s very, very normal. We don’t want that money to be spent on something else. We want it spent for the purpose that we agreed with the government. For me that is not a conditionality. It’s a way to agree to use this amount in development grants,” he added.

A day earlier, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano backtracked on his earlier statement that the Philippines is rejecting all forms of grants from the EU.

Based on the wrong information, President Duterte earlier threatened to expel EU diplomats after he erroneously claimed that the EU wants to have the Philippines expelled from the United Nations. – Rappler.com