President Rodrigo Duterte. AP FILE PHOTO
Brussels is now thinking twice whether or not to push through with its scheduled royal visit to the Philippines next year, according to a report by The Brussels Times.
The report came after President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial remarks that drew parallels with Adolf Hitler’s killing of Jews during the Holocaust and his repeated tirades against the European Union and the United Nations on the issue of human rights amid his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Brussels State Secretary for External Trade Cécile Jodogne told La Libre Belgique that “it will be difficult to ensure” that the trade mission to be supposedly led by Princess Astrid to the Philippines in May 2017 would go ahead.
The report said Jodogne sent an email to the Agency for External Trade’s partners on Friday requesting for an emergency meeting “to discuss whether the royal visit to the Philippines should still go ahead.”
“I will ask for the visit to be moved to a different country. If Federal authorities and the two other regions don’t agree, Brussels will not send a political representative. I’m not saying no-one should go to the Philippines at all, but the problem right now is timing,” she was quoted as saying.
Duterte on Friday said he would be “happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts in the Philippines by himself in the same way that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews before and during the Second World War.
READ: Duterte ‘Hitler’ talk reaps international censure
“If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have …,” Duterte told reporters in Davao City upon arriving from an official visit to Vietnam, before pausing and pointing to himself.
The President’s remarks drew a barrage of condemnation from the United Nations, German and Israeli governments, the Pentagon and international rights groups.
Duterte on Sunday apologized to the Jewish community for his remarks, saying he did not intend to derogate their history. RAM/rga
READ: Duterte apologizes to Jews for Hitler remark