(Eagle News)—President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday, May 4, rejected Time magazine’s “strongman” tag, saying he has never jailed any person who criticized him.
In the first place, he said he was “just a government worker,” with the people being his “employer.”
He said it was “another thing” though if foreigners criticized him.
The President has said only Filipinos have “unlimited” freedom of expression in the country.
According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, what Duterte has shown is his “strong and decisive leadership.”
He said this was “a quality appreciated by Filipinos” given Duterte’s “high satisfaction, approval, trust and performance ratings.”
Only recently, the Social Weather Stations said that Duterte’s net satisfaction rating was still “very good.”
“The President’s brand of justice strictly adheres to the rule of law where the dismantling of the drug apparatus ensures the proper investigation of all drug-related killings,” Roque said, noting that the President’s war on drugs has been praised by other countries.
In Time magazine’s article, Duterte was described as someone who “talked more like a mob boss than a President, on his promises to wipe out the drug trade with his own brand of justice.”
The article also featured Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
