Former President Fidel V. Ramos is a revered elder statesman and his concerns about the government of President Duterte would certainly be looked into, Malacañang said on Monday.
A day after Ramos found Duterte government a “huge disappointment and letdown” in the first 100 days in office, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said they respect the opinion of the former leader and would “listen” to him.
“Former President Ramos is a senior statesman and he’s acting in the sense of, parang in a sense like a father. He’s not referring to the actual actions. He’s referring to the public relations, foreign relations that tend to be affected by the President’s language,” Abella said in an interview with reporters at the Palace.
“He has his opinion and he has concerns especially regarding foreign relations and these are also worth looking into,” he added.
Ramos, in his Manila Bulletin column, said the “Team Philippines” was losing badly as the government focuses on the war on drugs at the expense of issues such as poverty, living costs, foreign investments and jobs.
The former leader said Duterte could have hit the ground running “instead being stuck in unending controversies about extra-judicial killings or drug suspects and in his ability at using cuss-words and insults instead of civilized language.”