The remarks came after the Philippines’ incoming foreign minister said that bilateral talks between the Philippines and China could help untangle the disputes in the South China Sea.
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True to his promise of beginning a reign of “bloody murder” on assuming office, Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine president-elect, said “corrupt” journalists deserve to be assassinated.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday he welcomes a possible warming of relations with the Philippines, now strained over China’s claims to most of the South China Sea.
Atty. Romel Bagares, Executive Director of the Center for International Law, Inc. said Duterte’s statement “implying that corrupt journalists who are killed were asking for it, and therefore deserved to die, only serves to justify and perpetuate impunity”.
“I was honored, receiving a congratulatory message from a great president”, Duterte told reporters when asked regarding the reported message of the Chinese president.
In a statement, the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) said it is “alarmed” by Duterte’s “sweeping pronouncement which could embolden attacks on the working press”.
“(I) hope both sides can work hard to push Sino-Philippine relations back onto a healthy development track”, Xi said.
The 71 year-old, tough-talking Duterte won by more than six million votes over closest rival Manuel Roxas, who was backed by President Benigno Aquino but rebuffed by almost 40 percent of the 44 million Filipinos who picked Duterte.
Members of Philippine Marines is pictured at BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated Philippine Navy ship that has been aground since 1999 and became a Philippine military detachment on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea March 29, 2016.
Meanwhile, Duterte did not give a Cabinet post to vice president-elect Leni Robredo, telling the media: “I don’t want to hurt the feelings of Bongbong Marcos”.
Aside from the outburst, Wang reiterated China’s standard line on the South China Sea, where it has overlapping claims with several Southeast Asian neighbors.
More controversially, former marine Nicanor Faeldon was chosen to be head of the customs bureau.
“I will call the private from the army and say: “Shoot him”, Duterte said. With the money left over from his campaign, he said, “I could go as far as maybe 100 persons dead”. “It will just result in a massacre”, he said.
“This is one of the most outrageous statements we have ever heard from a president in the Philippines”, said CPJ’s Shawn Crispin in Bangkok.
Mr Duterte’s former schoolmate, Carlos Dominguez, was named finance minister, and economics professor Ernesto Pernia will be economic planning minister.
When a female journalist asked a question, he wolf-whistled at her.
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“[Journalists] are not exempted from assassination…You won’t be killed if you don’t do anything wrong”, said Duterte at the conference.
