Duterte receives US, UK, German envoys in 'Malacañang of the South'

Pres-elect Duterte meets U.S. Amb to PH Philip Goldberg at the "Malacañang of the South
Photo courtesy: Katrina domingo via ANC

 DAVAO CITY - President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Monday received envoys from three Group of Seven (G7) countries at the "Malacañang of the South" in Panacan, Davao City.

Ahmad added he was given an "eagle for his collection", while photos posted on Ahmad’s Twitter account showed Duterte receiving "a pair of Triumph motorbike" scale models from the British envoy.

Details of Goldberg's and Ossowski's visits have yet to be released.

The visit of the three ambassadors was seen as a welcome development for foreign relations under the new administration after the 71-year-old firebrand stirred controversy when he made brash remarks against the international community, even before he won the 2016 presidential race with more than 16 million votes.

Duterte once told Goldberg and Australian ambassador Amanda Gorely to "shut their mouths," and threatened to cut ties with the U.S. and Australia after their top diplomats criticized his joke about the jailhouse rape of a missionary, weeks before the presidential elections.

Close ties with the U.S., U.K. and Germany under the current administration has reaped multi-pronged advantages for the Philippines, with the United States standing as the country's third largest trading partner with over $25 billion in goods and services traded, while Germany is among the country's top trading partners with the volume of trade pegged at 4.8 billion euros.

The U.S. and the U.K. are also included in the top ten visitor markets with 303,951 Americans and 63,039 British arrivals in the country in the first quarter of 2016.
All three countries are part of the top foreign donors to the United Nations Strategic Response Plan for victims of supertyphoon Yolanda.

The U.K. donated $45.02 million while the U.S. and Germany $40.11 million and $10.98 million, respectively.

Weeks before the visits of Goldberg, Ahmad and Ossowski, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jinhua and South Korean envoy Kim Jae-shin also flew to Davao to formally meet the president-elect.