Duterte recalls Obama criticizing PH drug war: Insulted but no hurt feelings

US President Barack Obama and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. AP FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte said he had no hurt feelings with America but he still recalled Friday how he was offended when former US President Barrack Obama.

Duterte, speaking at the inauguration of the Northern Mindanao Wellness and Reintegration Center in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, said he was offended when Obama criticized his policies concerning rights issues during a press conference in Laos on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016.

“The western countries are trying to impose their values on us, kaya ako nagalit sa kanila (that’s why I was angry at them). And for a President, Obama, to criticize me in a press conference about the records on human rights, naka-insulto,” Duterte said.

“I am a Filipino, why do you criticize me in a press briefing? I said, shut up, you’re an idiot. He was angry, I was also angry, we go our separate way, that’s okay,” he said.

But despite that, Duterte said he does not have hurt feelings with America.

The Philippine National Police counts more than 4,000 deaths —excluding deaths blamed on pro-government vigilantes – in the drug war. The official figures are lower than the estimated 12,000 deaths that rights groups have claimed.

But the police maintained that the government did not have any policy “to kill drug suspects” in their operations.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague is currently investigating Duterte for drug-related killings based on complaints of his former police aide and a self-described assassin who told the court that the President had ordered the deaths of criminals and political foes when he was the mayor for decades of Davao City in the southern Philippines. /jpv