Alvarez: Duterte elected as President, not as diplomat

MINDANAO TRIUMVIRATE President Duterte delivers his first State of the Nation Address. Mr. Duterte, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III (top left) and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez—the country’s top three elected officials—are all from Mindanao, a first in the country’s history. JOAN BONDOC

Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez on Monday pleaded to the public to respect President Rodrigo Duterte’s style of diplomacy, following the backlash over the President’s remark comparing the war on drugs to the Holocaust.

In a press briefing, the Davao Del Norte representative and a key ally of the President said Duterte was elected as President in the last elections, and not as a top diplomat.

“In addition to that, sinasabi nga ni Presidente kahapon that you have elected a president. Hindi daw diplomat. Hindi naman siya tumakbong diplomat eh, tumakbo siyang President,” Alvarez said.

(In addition to that, the President said yesterday that you have elected a President. Not a diplomat. He didn’t run as diplomat, he ran for President.)

It is only natural for Duterte to be preoccupied with the country’s internal problems – such as drug abuse, criminality, and poverty – over problems abroad, the Speaker added.

“Ngayon, of course ang primary concern niya is ‘yung internal problems natin, hindi yung foreign problems. ‘Yung internal problems natin — illegal drugs, criminality, poverty — ‘yun ang mga problema eh. Wala naman tutulong sa ating d’yan; kailangan tayo-tayo i-solve natin ang problemang ‘yan,” Alvarez said.

(Now, of course his primary concern is our internal problems, not the foreign problems. Our internal problems – illegal drugs, criminality, poverty – those are the problems. No one will help us out with our problems; we need to be the ones to solve these problems.)

Alvarez urged the public to just respect Duterte’s style of diplomacy.

“Diplomacy is a matter of style, ‘yung leader. So siguro ‘yung mga nakaraang Presidente, iba ‘yung style nila sa diplomacy, ito naman iba rin yung style nya sa diplomacy (So maybe our past Presidents had a different style of diplomacy, and our current one has a different style of diplomacy)… let’s respect that,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said it was only human for Duterte to apologize for his off-the-cuff remark likening the administration’s war on drugs to the slaughter of Jews during the regime of  German dictator Adolf Hitler.

 READ: Duterte says sorry to Jews

“Alam mo, lahat naman tayo nagkakamali. Ngayon kung kinakailangang mag-apologize, mag-apologize tayo. So wala naman akong problema dun. Hindi naman perfect siguro bawat tao na lahat ng gagawin mo ay tama,” Alvarez said.

(You know, all of us makes mistakes. If an apology is needed, we will apologize. So we don’t have a problem there. No one is perfect.)

“Ngayon ‘pag na-realize mo na hindi tama (Now if you realize that it’s not right), I think, at least, you have that courage to apologize,” he added.

On Friday, Duterte called himself the Adolf Hitler of the Philippines and likened his administration’s war on drugs to Hitler’s killing of Jews.

Duterte said he would be happy to slaughter three million drug dependents like how Hitler ordered six million Jews killed.

“There are 3 million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I’d be happy to slaughter them… If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have…,” Duterte said, pointing at himself.

READ: FULL TEXT + VIDEO: ‘I’d be happy to slaughter them all’ | Duterte ‘Hitler’ talk reaps international censure

Duterte received flak from the Jewish and the rest of the international community for his remark.

Malacañang said Duterte only made an “oblique deflection” to the way he had been compared to Hitler, the label of which according to the Palace Duterte strongly rejects. Duterte has apologized for his statement. JE/rga

READ: Palace clarifies Duterte Hitler reference: PH recognizes Jews’ tragedy