Spanish consul protests ‘baseless allegations’

For the second time this year the Inquirer’s Biz Buzz section has deemed it your readers’ interest to write about the Consulate General of Spain in Manila (“Consul strikes again,” by Daxim Lucas, Business, 7/10/17). Regrettably, such story, going well beyond an unwarranted exercise of press freedom, contains totally false allegations regarding our work.

I can understand your newspaper’s disposition to resonate the tribulations of, as the author puts it, certain “tycoons” who feel “shabbily treated” and inconvenienced when dealing with the procedures of the Spanish Public Administration. These procedures, enshrined in the Constitution of Spain and scrupulously respected and enacted by the Consulate General of Spain in Manila, “advocates as the highest values of its legal order, liberty, justice, equality…” (Article 1) and “serves the general interest with objectivity and acts in accordance with the principles of efficiency (…) being fully subject to justice and the law” (Article 103).

Given that the concepts of “tisoys” and “Chinoys” are foreign both to my mother tongue and mentality, I can only assume as the author’s personal lucubration the proposition that prejudice on my part was the cause of the
concerns narrated to him.

Yet, it is my duty to protest the unfounded allegations the piece contains regarding our work at the Consulate General of Spain in Manila, whose efficiency and compliance with the law are duly monitored, and accordingly recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, that has appointed me consul general.

These totally baseless allegations place the content of the Biz Buzz section not only far beyond the unjustifiable exercise of freedom of communication and expression, but has even reached the realm of libel and slander.

I am sure this is something that cannot be considered professional or ethical by a respected newspaper such as the Inquirer.

JAVIER MARTIN GARCIA,
consul general,
Consulate General of Spain in Manila