Philippines president Duterte says he could throw out EU diplomats 'within 24 hours'

[Pinoy]

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

• Nicola Smith

12 OCTOBER 2017


Firebrand Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has warned the EU and UN that he could throw out their ambassadors within 24 hours if they continue to “interfere” in his brutal war against drugs.

“You think that we are a bunch of morons here... The ambassadors of those countries learn a lesson now. Because we can have the diplomatic channels cut tomorrow, you leave my country in 24 hours, all of you,” he said during an expletive-filled tirade against colonialism in the capital, Manila.

There has been rising international outrage over a vicious crackdown on drugs users and dealers, launched by Mr Duterte after his rise to power in June 2016.

More than 12,500 Filipinos have been killed in the last year, with almost 4,000 during police operations and many more by masked assassins.

Last month the UK joined 38 other countries at the UN Human Rights Council [UNHRC] in Geneva to urge the Philippines to end the killings and allow an international investigation into the deaths. It was slammed by Manila as a “politicised” move.

Duterte appears to have been riled further this week by a suggestion by Human Rights Watch Geneva director, John Fisher, that the Philippines could be kicked out of the UNHRC, and by a visiting mission of European parliamentarians who told him publicly to “stop the killings.”

“You are interfering in our affairs,” said Mr Duterte in a rambling address to a press conference on Thursday, switching between English, Filipino and Spanish. “We are past the colonisation stage. Don’t f*** with us,” he continued.

“You must have taken the Philippines for granted, saying that we could be excluded,” he said, although no government has called for the Philippines’ exclusion from the UN.

Mr Duterte said the Philippines was angry at the West for “stealing our resources” and denounced the US, UK and France in particular, suggesting that plundering the Middle East had led to modern day terrorism.

“You built your riches, you were ahead in the industrial race of planet earth because you stole the greatest resource of the Arabs – oil,”he said.

“You colonised there, then started to divide the Middle East - the United States, UK, France, and that is why you are paying heavily now with terrorism. May you end up happy for what you have done.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...sident-duterte-says-could-throw-eu-diplomats/

 

[Kulas Mata]

EU disowns mission of Euro lawmakers

The European Union (EU) has distanced itself from the recent visit in Manila of a handful of European parliamentarians who warned the Duterte administration of sanctions over its bloody antidrugs campaign.

The visiting parliamentarians belonging to the Progressive Alliance and the Party of European Socialists said the Philippines risked losing the duty-free status of 6,200 products exported to the EU if it did not immediately stop the extrajudicial killings and the persecution of critics.

The General System of Preferences (GSP+) deal is under review and the EU is expected to make a report in January.

“The European Union had no involvement whatsoever in the visit of the seven-member delegation of the International Delegates of the Progressive Alliance which took place Oct. 8 to 9 in Manila,” the EU delegation to the Philippines said in a statement on Wednesday.

It pointed out that the delegation consisted of a German member of the European Parliament and representatives from Sweden, Germany, Italy, Australia and the United States.

“It is therefore not correct to label the visit an ‘EU mission’ and we kindly ask publications which have done so to rectify this mistake,” the EU delegation to the Philippines stressed.

Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer