“It’s different now that I’m President because I represent a country”, he said in a speech before soldiers in Camarines Sur. But who did I kill?
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“I read the condemnation of the European Union against me”. Mr Duterte later said he didn’t mean it personally. 1,700 here? You call that genocide?
He has typically used abusive language in responding to the criticism, branding Obama a “son of a whore” and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon a “fool”, and lifting his middle finger while saying “fuck you” to the European Parliament.
He said the European Union’s statement was apparently meant to atone for its own sins, stressing that EU member countries had themselves been involved in atrocities in the Middle East. Earlier this month, he called President Barack Obama the “son of a whore”, prompting the White House to call off meetings between the two men scheduled during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Laos.
They have been killed either by police or vigilantes, after the new president effectively sanctioned the murder of criminals and drugs dealers.
On September 3, the European Parliament called for “an end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings” of drug suspects and directed the EU delegation in the Philippines to monitor rights abuses. He spoke in a mixture of languages and switched to English for the expletive, raising his middle finger for emphasis.
“I say to them, f*ck you”.
“They are strict now because there’s guilt”, Duterte said.
“The European Union and the Philippines enjoy good relations, and we will continue to discuss this issue, among many others, in our bilateral contacts and with the authorities”, EU Ambassador Franz Jessen said in a statement.
It called for a close monitoring of human rights abuses after 15 people died in a Davao City explosion on September 2 and in the wake of Duterte’s get-tough policy on illegal drug trafficking in the Philippines.
The group said it was “aghast that the lawmakers presiding over the hearing, who are political allies of President Rodrigo Duterte, conducted it in a way that grossly violates the privacy and the rights of a sitting legislator”.
He said “hypocritical” former colonial powers like France and Britain were trying to atone for their own sins.
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“When combined with the president’s policy pronouncements elsewhere on foreign policy and national security, we believe that the stability and predictability of policymaking has diminished somewhat”. He said the government’s focus on growth is sustainable and will lift more Filipinos out of poverty.
