Pres. Rodrigo Duterte stresses a point during his keynote speech in yesterday’s inauguration of the FDC Misamis Power Corp. 405-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental. (Jigger J. Jerusalem)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY— President Duterte on Thursday continued to heap scorn on the United Nations and the European Union, challenging them to send their observers to the Philippines to investigate his government’s war on drugs, which has left over 3,000 dead.
Mr. Duterte particularly hit out at the European Union, which he scored for its alleged “hypocrisy.” He said Europe, for one, has been pushing to regulate the use of nonrenewable energy sources to developing countries like the Philippines, even as it was among the first to heavily pollute the world.
He said he was going to invite the UN’s special rapporteur and experts from the European Union, to explain to them the context of his government’s drug war. But the invitation would be made on the condition they also agree to be grilled by him personally.
“I am inviting the European Union’s best. And the best lawyer of your town, including the rapporteurs, to the Philippines. I will write them a letter to invite them for an investigation. But in keeping with the time-honored principle of the right to be heard, I will grill them after they are finished making theirs,” the President said.
“I will ask them one by one. In open forum, you can use the Senate or Folk Arts (Theater), whatever. Everybody will be invited,” he said. “You can watch how I will beat these devils to the ground.”
He repeated the speech before members of the regional police force, and warned the experts that they can’t “have your cake and eat it too.”
The President accused the European Union of playing double standards, castigating smaller nations in areas such as lowering carbon footprints even as they themselves created the problem in the first place, for example.
“These Caucasians are funny,” he said, as he stressed that coal remained the most viable option for the country’s energy needs.
Keeping up
“If we want to industrialize our country, because we are left behind by so many generations, we have to keep up with developments. [And the main option] right now is coal because it’s cheap, it’s available, although it may have impact on the planet,” Mr. Duterte said at the inauguration of the FDC Misamis Power Corp.’s 405-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental province.
The FDC Misamis facility is seen to augment the energy needs of Mindanao which industry players consider as very timely considering the power deficiency being experienced in the island in the past few months.
Meanwhile, the president said he would be increasing his trips to China to discuss competing claims in the South China Sea after Manila won a UN arbitral ruling in July. In what appeared to be a softening of the country’s stance, he said his government’s new foreign policy would be “neutral.”
“You will see me more often in China,” Mr. Duterte said. “One of the things that I would demand if I go to the mainland China is give us back our fishing rights.”
He said it would be futile to go war with its giant neighbor.
But he reiterated that discussions would be based on the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated Beijing’s claim to nearly the whole of the South China Sea, including areas that fall under the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“This piece of paper that we have our award, we do not go out of the four corners of this paper. We talk. We won’t pretend as if we’re so brave,” he said.
“Look at this, they helped build a power plant, and just imagine if we can get their help in the years to come,” he said.
He also reiterated that there would be no joint patrols with American forces in disputed waters.