Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said his threat to pull Manila out of the UN for criticizing his deadly war on crime was just a “joke,” while attempting a light-hearted wordplay on genocide.
Duterte on Sunday said he might withdraw the Philippines from the world body after a UN human rights expert said last week that his encouragement of security forces to kill drug suspects violated international law.
“Can’t you take a joke,” Duterte told reporters on Tuesday, when asked if he was serious.
Photo: EPA
More than 1,900 people have been killed since Duterte was sworn into office on June 30 and immediately launched his war on crime, the Philippine National Police chief said.
Duterte has insisted most of the 756 people confirmed killed by police were drug suspects who resisted arrest, while the others died due to gang members waging war against each other.
However, human rights groups, several lawmakers and others have said that security forces are engaging in unprecedented extrajudicial killings.
The US Department of State this week said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of extrajudicial killings.
Duterte on Tuesday criticized Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on summary executions who said he was violating international law, branding her “ambitious” and “brainless.”
Duterte also said Callamard had accused him of genocide, which she did not.
“That’s the invention of a woman who wants to commit suicide,” Duterte said, before offering his wordplay. “You can think of genocide, suicide or what, side by side, upper side, whatever, what if upper side or even upside?”
A local reporter then joined in, offering “sunny side.”
Duterte smiled and said: “You reporters say that and then we will be the ones accused of saying that. You added something there.”
Duterte and his aides have previously cautioned reporters not to take everything the president says at face value.
Duterte once promised 100,000 people would die in his war on crime with so many bodies dumped in Manila Bay that fish would grow fat from feeding on them.
He also told a reporter he had personally killed three people.
During the presidential campaign, Duterte attracted criticism for saying he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was sexually assaulted and murdered in a Philippine prison. He later said it was not a joke, and refused to apologize.
However, when pressed on the issue this month in an interview with al-Jazeera, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the rape comment was a joke.
Abella sought to explain that Duterte’s humor and abusive comments were because he was Cebuano, referring to people from the central and southern Philippines.
“The Cebuano subculture speaks in a very rough kind of humor,” Abella said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not