“You’re doing it in atonement for your sins”, Duterte pointed out.
Advertisement
“I’ve read the European Union’s condemnation against me”.
“Even if I wanted to, I can not kill them all because the last report would be this thick”, Duterte quipped, referring to a new, still unpublished list of mostly elected public officials linked to the illegal drug trade.
He then raised his middle finger to put his point across, in case the European Union didn’t get his tongue lashing.
The extrajudicial killings have concerned rights advocates, with the Human Rights Watch calling on the United States and the European Union to “make it clear to Duterte that inciting such violence is unacceptable and will reap potentially severe diplomatic and economic costs”. “So I repeat it. Fuck you”, he said, raising his middle finger.
Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippine elections in a landslide in May after vowing to eradicate the illegal drug trade in six months, and promising that 100,000 criminals would be killed in the process.
Duterte’s staff and ministers have maintained a more diplomatic posture than their president; the U.S. State Department has at times only responded to official government communications, and not to the latest controversial remarks from Duterte.
On the campaign trail in early 2016, Mr Duterte said 100,000 people would be killed during his crackdown on drugs – a vow severely criticised by the United Nations and human rights charities.
The EU had expressed concern over the extraordinarily high numbers killed during police operations in the context of an intensified anti-crime and anti-drug campaign.
“Even if I wanted to, I can not kill them all because the last report would be this thick”, Duterte said, laughing. More than 3,000 people have been killed in just over two months.
While it did not cast blame on the government, the resolution referred to how Duterte “repeatedly urged law enforcement agencies and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers who did not surrender as well as drug users”. Rodrigo Duterte’s favorite phrase, which translates roughly to “son of a whore”, has been deployed against the likes of President Barack Obama and Pope Francis.
“There will be another explosion, believe me”, the President said during a meeting with survivors and families of the victims in the night market bombing here early this month. 1,700 here? You call that genocide?
“Who did I kill?”
Duterte added that he too, however, will question the officials about the actions of the two organisations.
The call of the European Parliament to launch an immediate investigation is already being addressed as President Duterte has already instructed authorities to look into these incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice, Andanar explained.
Advertisement
“I don’t care about that”, he said Thursday.
