Duterte offers to grant Filipino citizenship to Rohingya refugees

Rohingya Muslim refugees who were stranded after leaving Myanmar walk towards the Balukhali refugee camp after crossing the border in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district on November 3, 2017. / AFP / Dibyangshu Sarkar/

(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, Feb. 26, offered to give Filipino citizenship to Rohingya refugees.

“I am willing to accept Rohingyas. ‘Yung talagang walang mapuntahan tatanggapin ko ‘yan, gawain kong Pilipino,” Duterte said in a speech at Manila Hotel.

The Rohingyas are a group of people who have fled Myanmar since 2017 following attacks by security government forces who were previously attacked by militant Rohingyas.

President Duterte himself described the situation in the neighboring country as genocide, but he later apologized to Myanmar’s  Ang San Suu Kyi, saying he was lashing out at countries that kept on criticizing but offered no help.