“Even if I wanted to, I can not kill them all, because the report would be this thick”, Duterte said, refering the new alleged drug-dealers list.
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Singling out France and Britain, Mr. Duterte said the parliament’s members were “hypocrites” whose colonial-era ancestors killed “thousands” of Arabs and other peoples.
Recently the European Union urged the Philippines government to put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial killings and respect human rights.
Member countries of the European Union had earlier released a statement calling for an investigation into the mounting death toll in the Philippines to comply with “national and global obligations and respect for human rights”.
Duterte’s latest outburst follows a resolution by the European Parliament on September 15 that expressed concern about the campaign that has killed at least 3,500 people in the country since he took office on June 30.
Duterte said Saturday he did not realize the severity of the problem until he became president.
The European Union was not spared from the president’s verbal attack, joining UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US President Barrack Obama and the Pope who were earlier cussed by Mr. Duterte. Duterte, while campaigning, said he wanted to kill 100,000 in a crackdown. “Who did I kill, assuming that it’s true?”
In less than three months of the new Duterte administration, the government’s massive anti-drug campaign has prompted nearly 700,000 drug pushers and users to surrender themselves to the authorities.
“We have names. We know who they are. I repeat it – f*** you”, the seemingly enraged leader added, reinforcing his message with a middle finger he gave to the cheering audience. Criminals. You call that genocide?
Mr. Duterte singled out France and the United Kingdom for joining the U.S.in attacking countries in the Middle East in recent years and said history books were littered with examples of atrocities committed by Europeans. “I can not kill them all. even if I wanted to”, he told reporters.
More than 600,000 others, mostly drug users, have surrendered to authorities for fear they may be killed.
He also said he supported calls to postpone the barangay elections, to be held in October, because drug money could be used to ensure victory of those who connive with drug dealers.
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Duterte, however, says he does not “care” about human rights, threatening to declare martial law and even drop United Nations membership if the world body interferes with the crackdown.
