(Eagle News) — Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to protest a United States intelligence group’s report that cited President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, among others, as a regional threat.
“Kasi anong pakialam nila sa atin eh sila nga itong maraming kalokohan sa iba’t ibang bansa? Nanghihimasok sila e di naman sila kasali doon,” Alvarez said in a radio interview.
Alvarez said the release of the report was indeed a “warning shot” but not for President Rodrigo Duterte to stop doing what he’s doing as claimed by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, but for the “current administration, for our nation to really go against what America is doing.”
Trillanes had said the report was a “warning shot” for the President, which means he “is nearing that red line because domestically, he has been pushing boundaries because he knows he’s popular enough to do that.”
“Matagal na silang nakikialam,” Alvarez said.
Apart from the war on drugs, the US Intelligence Group said in its Feb. 13 report that Duterte’s pronouncements favoring a revolutionary government and the imposition of martial law nationwide were threats to the region.
The group also included Cambodia’s Hun Sen’s alleged repression of democratic institutions, and the Rohingya crisis, among others, in its list.