(Eagle News) — “What happened to the right to be heard?”
This was what President Rodrigo Duterte said he told Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Council President Donald Tusk when the issue of human rights was raised in separate instances.
“Sabi ko sa kaniya, did it not occur to you, wonder why, ang pinapakita nila extrajudicial killings, di makaproduce when, what happened, how?” Duterte said he told Trudeau.
Earlier, Trudeau said he raised “human rights, rule of law, specifically extrajudicial killings” in a “very cordial” conversation with the Philippine leader.
Trudeau said Duterte was “receptive” to his comments.
According to Duterte, he also “inserted the matter of extrajudicial killings” during the 40th Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union Commemorative Summit attended by Tusk.
“I said, whatever happened to that precious phrase, it’s a Western thing, the right to be heard,” he said.
He said he considers it a “personal and official insult” when foreigners “come here and make claims without knowing what is happening” in the country.
He said he “will answer the fisherman and the farmer and I will explain to them patiently why it is so.”
“But I will never allow a foreigner to question me. That’s an insult and that’s why what you get is bullsh*t from me,” he said.
“As president I have to protect the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines even at the expense of being pictured as a berdugo, executioner. My duty is to my country. I only answer to the Filipino,” he added.