DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 October) – Stop!
Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights said President Rodrigo Duterte “has the duty to be a statesman” and should stop talking about killing people, to protect the country from undue criticisms about alleged extrajudicial killings.
“Maingay ang Pangulo. Sobrang ingay ng Pangulo. Tama naman ipakita niya na galit siya sa droga pero wag na siyang mag-ingay na ‘papatayin kita,’ ‘I will kill you.’ Hindi tama yan,” (The President talks too much. He talks too much. It is right for him to express his rage against drugs but he should stop talking ‘I will kill you.’”
“Kaya he is falling on his own sword. Nadadapa sya sa kanyang espada. Dahil salita siya nang salita Napagbintangan tuloy ang buong bansa na ganyan ang nangyayari” (Because he talks and talks. That’s why the entire country is being accused that this is happening), Gordon said at the hearing on extrajudicial killings at the Senate in Pasay City Monday.
Gordon said the President is his friend as both of them served as city mayors but he does not like his talking too much that this is what he is going to do. He said Duterte should be saying ‘there are unsolved cases, go after them,’” the Senator added.
Gordon served as mayor of Olongapo and became famous nationwide for his slogan, “Bawal ang tamad sa Olongapo” (Lazy people are not allowed in Olongapo).
“Pagka maingay ang Pangulo natin.. ang sabi ‘papatayin natin lahat ng mga drug pushers,’ kahti na di nya sinasabi na talagang ‘patayin ninyo, kasama na pag lumababan,’ ibig sabihin ang pusher ngayon, ang druglord, police na nag-aalaga ng pusher lalaban yan . o alam nya na papatayin siya eh. Pagdating ng pulis ah (sasabihin nila) papatayin na tayo nyan” [If the President talks too much, says ‘let’s kill all the drug pushers,’ even if he does not say ‘kill them, if they resist,’ this means the pusher, the drug lord, the police protecting the pusher, will fight back. Because he knows he will be killed. When the police arrives (they will say) they will kill us],” he said.
He said Duterte gets piqued when he is being criticized. “Buyuin mo nang konti magagalit, sasagot kaagad yan kaya nagkaloko-loko ang statement (He gets angry easily, he will immediately respond that’s why you have incongruent statements)”
“As a senator I can say that. I can say that as a friend. Magalit sya sa akin wala akong magawa but we have to protect the country from bad statements and the President has the duty to be a statesman, a statesman! He must not be heard saying all bad words, saying ganito. Sabibin ko nga baguhin na natin ang slogan sa tourism. Welcome to the PI. Wow, PI.”
“PI” refers to Put… Ina,” Duterte’s favorite expletive.
A day earlier, Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the Committee on Dangerous Drugs and Public Order said he was getting tired of having to interpret Duterte’s remarks.
“Nakakapagod na rin magbasa betwen the lines lalo na sa atin, sa labas ng bansa, (it’s tiring to have to read between the lines, especially for us, for those outside the country), the international community, they take the words as they come out of the mouth of the President,” GMA News online quoted Lacson as saying in a dzBB interview in Manila last Sunday, two days after Duterte’ remarks on Hitler and his war on drugs drew international condemnation.
“Hindi naman puwede na ibu-burden mo pa sila na mag-interpret o magbasa between the lines,”(You cannot burden them with interpreting or reading between the lines), he said, adding it was “very clear” that Duterte was trying to make a comparison between Hitler’s extermination of Jews and his war on drugs.
On Sunday, Duterte apologized to the Jewish community for his remarks. “I would like to make it clear here and now that there was never an intention on my part to derogate the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Germans… I apologize profoundly and deeply to the Jewish,” he said during the opening ceremony of the Masskara Festival in Bacolod City.
On his arrival from his state visit in Vietnam in the early hours of September 30, Duterte reported on what his visit achieved in a prepared speech that he followed with an extemporaneous one where he lashed out at critics again for focusing on alleged extrajudicial killings brought about by his war on drugs and portraying him as cousin of Hitler.
“Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now (there are) three million drug addict(s)… I’d be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have you know (pausing as he pointed to himself).”
“My victims, I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition,” Duterte said. (MindaNews)
