DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 05 Sept) — President Rodrigo Duterte said US President Barrack Obama cannot confront him on issues of alleged extrajudicial killings and human rights violations because the Philippines is “no valsal state” and has “ceased to be a colony of the United States.”
“Who is he? I am a President of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people,” Duterte said in a brief press conference at the Davao International Airport before departing for Vientiane in Laos to attend the 28th and 29th 28th and 29th ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation) Summits in Vientiane, Laos Monday afternoon.
President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his statement before departing for the ASEAN Summits in Vientiane, Laos Monday afternoon. Kiwi Bulaclac /PPD
The feisty president said he does not respond to “anybody but to the people of Republic of the Philippines.”
He also relived the American occupation in Mindanao over a century ago and how the supposed pacification campaign led to the death of 600,000 Moro people.
“If he can answer that question and give the apology, I will answer him.
I am not beholden to anybody. I am the President of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be the colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful, do not just throw away questions and statements,” he said.
He said President Obama “must first answer” for the misdeeds that his country did in the past while saying that “just because it is past tense we do not answer for the present tense. Stop joking yourselves,” he said.
He said “wounds” transcend generations. “They invaded this country and made us their subjugated people,” he said.
He also lambasted who are critical of his war on drugs and labeled them as “lapdogs” of President Obama.
(Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
