Duterte frequently peppers his public comments with swear words – he has also called Pope Francis and the United States ambassador to Manila sons of whores – and days after his election win used typical language to criticise the UN. “If you are that disrespectful, son of a w***e, then I will just leave you”, he said in a press conference in his home city of Davao that started about 1am.
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“What I’m saying, general, is the world revolves”, Trillanes told dela Rosa and other police generals at the hearing, citing instances when military and police personnel were criminally charged for heeding unlawful orders.
However, his foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, said on Monday the Philippines would remain a United Nations member and described the president’s comments as expressions of “profound disappointment and frustration”.
And now Palace officials are saying, as they have said countless times before, that the President’s words created an impression different from that he had intended.
He’s proposed forming a rival worldwide body, saying he’d invite China and a number of countries from Africa.
Abella said that the war on drugs “are within the our ambit of national sovereignty, national concerns, and that at this stage there was no call for the United Nations to make any investigations”.
“I do not want to insult you”.
Speaking on Sunday, he suggested he might invite China and African countries to join The Philippines in forming a new global body separate from the UN. Duterte is set to become the Philippines’ next president after Monday’s election.
The nation’s top officer, who was elevated to the role when his longtime friend, confidante and colleague Duterte was elected, testified that his officers had arrested 10,153 drug pushers and users since the war on drugs began at the beginning of June.
“Shoot him [the drug dealer] and I’ll give you a medal”, Duterte said.
He said his country was committed to the organisation despite its “frustrations”, Xinhua news agency reported. “[However], we are not decoupling”, Presidential Spokersperson Ernesto Abella said in a press briefing.
The extrajudicial killings have alarmed human rights organizations, but apparently please Duterte, who sees vigilante justice as a key component of his plan to reduce his country’s drug epidemic.
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On Thursday, the UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, had described the president’s statements on security forces’ operations against drug suspects as a “license to kill”.
