Palace: We respect Belgian royal’s plan to scrap Philippine visit

MalacaÑang on Tuesday said it would respect the decision of Belgian Princess Astrid if she canceled her visit to the Philippines next year as a result of President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial statement that he would be happy to slaughter three million drug addicts in the country as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had exterminated millions of Jews.

“She has her own standards by which she has to act. Although we have not gotten any formal communication regarding those matters, this is in a sense a matter of speculation. Although we respect her values, we respect her position,” Palace spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters in a news conference.