Duterte to US, EU, UN: We won’t beg for your assistance
President Rodrigo Duterte (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC)
Go ahead. Withdraw your assistance.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday dared the United States, the European Union and the United Nations to withdraw their aid to the Philippines for criticizing his war on illegal drugs.
“So I do not expect the human rights, I do not expect Obama, I do not expect the EU to understand me. Do not understand me. And if you think it’s high time for you guys to withdraw your assistance, go ahead. We will not beg for it,” Duterte said in a speech at the Police Region 13 Headquarters in Butuan City.
The President said he won’t be cowed by possible withdrawal of foreign aid, who believed that his administration’s war on drugs was tainted with extra-judicial killings.
“How do you look at us? Mendicants? Sige lang. Di kami (sunud-sunuran). We will survive. We will survive. Maski magkahirap dito. We will survive,” he said.
If that happens, Duterte said he would be the first one to die of hunger.
“I’ll be the first one to go hungry. I’ll be the first one to die of hunger, huwag kayo mag alalala but we will never, never compromise our dignity as Filipino,” he said.
The Chief Executive said international human rights groups and other countries don’t understand the drug problem in the Philippines.
“You will never understand the pain that we are suffering. Go away bring your money to somewhere else. We will survive as a nation. There will always be a day for reckoning. Di lahat ng panahon inyo e,” he said.
Duterte also responded to Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo’s worries that our foreign aid would stop amid Duterte’s no-nonsense war on illegal drugs.
“You know, mamili kayo the crumbs of the favor ng ibang nasyon aasa tayo sa assistance nila or we make a stand that this country has to survive that this country must see to it that the next generation is protected?” he said. TVJ
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