DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte again called the United States as hypocrite for its threat to block the Philippines due to “human rights violations” related to his administrations’ war on drugs.
“You enjoy the fat of my land for 50 years. Shut up you hypocrites,” Duterte said during his arrival press conference here in Davao airport from his four-day state visit from Cambodia and Singapore late night Friday.
“How dare you say you will cut the assistance and aid? We do not need it,” he said.
The US made the announcement through Molly Koscina, spokesperson for the embassy, on Thursday, where she was quoted by a New York Times report saying because of “significant concerns around the rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines,” the US withheld its aid to the country.
Duterte said that it is the US which colonized the Philippines for 50 years. The US “owes an apology of all murders specially the Moro in Mindanao.”
“It is you [US] who owes us, you sat on my land for 50 years, oppressed us for 50 years, killed so many Filipinos,” Duterte said.
Duterte also said the government is glad that it is now “free from proving anything” to the US.
“We do not need the money. China said… ‘we will give you the money.’ So, babay (goodbye) America and work on the protocols that will move you out from the Philippines,” Duterte said.
Duterte also said he has no problem even if he is projected as a “killer.”
“So? At least, I kill to protect people. I am not here as a dictator, who kill my political opponents to stay in power,” he said.
But Duterte clarified that it is the “people there in Washington” that he is referring to and not the US institutions.
“Trump does not sound hostile or antagonistic to me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III urged Friday the Millennium Challenge Corp., a US-based company, to reconsider their decision on putting on hold its funding for the country’s antipoverty program.
Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. said the US should give aid without conditions. (davaotoday.com)
