Foreign journalist gets a taste of spite from Duterte

A foreign journalist got a first-hand experience of President Duterte’s notorious crabbiness.

Following a lengthy response to questions from journalist Jonathan Miller, Mr. Duterte cussed at the British television reporter.

“Tang-ina mo! (You son of a bitch!),” the President told Miller after replying to questions from the Channel 4 News reporter at a news briefing at the Davao International Airport late Wednesday.

The news conference, aired live by the state-run People’s Television Network, was held on Mr. Duterte’s return from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru.

Miller apparently triggered another anti-US tirade from the President that started with a question on Mr. Duterte’s statement that he would be joining China and Russia in a “new world order” and later on the killings in the administration’s war on drugs.

When Miller said more people were killed in the first five months of his administration than during the Marcos dictatorship, the President said: “I could ask the same question. Why is America losing 40,000 lives [in] drug-related cases?”

Sensitive

Mr. Duterte got irked at Miller, who said in response that the killings were “not sanctioned” by the US president.

“What makes the Philippines different from America? May I ask you? In terms of drugs, what is [the difference] of my color with the color of America?” he said.

The President has been sensitive to allegations of human rights violations in his war on drugs, calling the United States, the United Nations and the European Union “hypocrites” for criticizing the bloody campaign.

The President spoke against the US invasion of Panama in 1989 to unseat President Manuel Noriega to plug the transit of illegal drugs from the Central American nation to the US mainland.

He also said the US-led invasion of Iraq and the killing of Saddam Hussein were in the guise of seizing weapons of mass destruction that Washington later admitted were not found.

“They invaded a country on a question or in issue because drugs were flooding America and they have to take out Noriega,” he said.

“So they destroyed not only the sovereignty, they fractured the country. It’s nonexistent actually,” he said. “And they have to kill Saddam to get the leader. So who is the hypocrite here?”

Known for his profanity-laced speeches and outbursts, the former Davao mayor won popular support for promising to end the drug menace in the country within the first six months of his administration.

He has since admitted that he needed to extend his ruthless campaign, which has left nearly 5,000 people dead, for another six months.