Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: Crazy quotes the world noticed
HE’S the leader who has made headlines for more reasons than one. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has managed to put everyone offside.
HE’S the firebrand leader who has made headlines for more reasons than one.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who was propelled into the global spotlight with his brutal call to kill drug dealers and traffickers, has managed to offend pretty much everyone since.
From his views on the South China Sea dispute to calling US President Barack Obama a name he’d rather forget, The Punisher has earned himself a reputation for not being backward about coming forward.
Duterte was elected President in May in a landslide victory, promising to kill 100,000 criminals within six months of taking power.
His views and comments are considered extreme by many in the west but the outspoken leader insists his tough approach to crime and zero tolerance on drugs is working.
Here are just a handful of the crazy quotes which have caught the world’s attention.
ON DRUGS
During his maiden speech Duterte asked for his people’s help to rid the country of drugs, promising to reward them with medals and cash for shooting dead troublemakers.
“Do your duty, and if in the process you kill 1000 persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you,” he said.
“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”
This week he reaffirmed his hard line approach to drugs and reducing the crime rate.
“More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue.”
His Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa is just as brutal in his assessment of drug dealers and it’s easy to see why they call him The Rock.
“They’re all enjoying your money, money that destroyed your brain. You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing them is allowed because you are the victim.”
Dela Rosa later apologised for his choice of words admitting describing them as an “emotional outburst”.
ON OBAMA
The Philippine leader managed to shock again when he called Barack Obama a “son of a wh*re” this week, vowing not to be lectured by the US leader on human rights ahead of a meeting in Laos.
“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a wh*re, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told a news conference shortly before flying to Laos to attend the ASEAN summit. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.”
The meeting between the leaders was unsurprisingly cancelled.
ON HIS CRITICS
Duterte doesn’t care what the world thinks of him and he’s happy to let it be known.
“There are others who have the mental capacity of dogs who lap at the ass of the Americans” referring to how he was being perceived in the west.
He also told reporters this week: “I don’t give a s*** about anybody observing my behaviour.”
ON RELIGION
Even God’s followers have not been spared from a stinging Duterte comment.
Two weeks ago the world did a collective face palm when Duterte revealed he once considered being a priest.
As if that thought wasn’t shocking enough, his comments following it certainly were.
During a gathering of a religious group in Manila, he said: “I once considered being a priest,” Rappler reported.
The President then took it a step further by saying: “It’s good I didn’t join the priesthood or else now I would be a homosexual.”
Duterte later apologised for his words.
ON AUSSIE MISSIONARY DEATH
Duterte, who was mayor of the southern city of Davao since 1988, came under fire for joke about the rape of a murdered Australian missionary in April.
Jacqueline Hamill, an Australian missionary who was murdered during a hostage siege in Davao, Philippines in 1989, appeared to be the shocking punchline in Duterte’s joke.
In a campaign video which was posted on YouTube and widely shared on social media, the then presidential candidate recalled his reaction to the riot which saw five missionaries murdered by detainees.
“There was this Australian lay minister ... I saw her face and I thought: Son of a bitch. What a pity ... they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first,” he told the crowd.
He refused to apologise saying the comment was a reflection of his anger at the time of the killing.
ON INVASION
Duterte has not been shy about holding back when it comes to foreign affairs, even managing to offend China with his views on the South China Sea dispute.
Duterte warned of a “bloody” confrontation if China dared cross into the Philippines’ Economic Exclusive Zone insisting he would walk the extra mile for peace.
“But I am sure and I guarantee to them that if they invade us, it will be bloody and we will not give it to them easily. It will be the bones of our soldiers, you can include mine,” he told soldiers at a Manila training camp.
“We will not raise hell now because of the judgement but there will come a time that we will have to do some reckoning about this.”
- with AFP, AP
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