Duterte tells Western critics: Join anti-drug fray fray

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte used an ASEAN gathering last night to take another potshot at Western nations’ supposed interference in the country’s domestic affairs, specifically his bloody war on drugs, challenging them to “join the fray” and help solve the problem “the civilized way.”

Addressing the High Level Forum on ASEAN@50 at the Conrad Hotel, Duterte said there is “so much worry about human rights, about people being killed in the process” and not much about the circumstances behind the killings.

“To the Western (countries), please do not impose your will on us,” he said, adding they should not denigrate Philippine sovereignty “by lecturing on us, the civilities of a country.”

“Tell us, if we are (un)able to deal with the problem, I will be very happy to order my soldiers and the police to … many Western countries are interested to do it the civilized way. Then come, I am inviting you to do join the fray and I would be glad to appoint you the lead role in the problem,” he said.

“It is not, maybe to your satisfaction that you do not like what we are doing, but you know, there are things which you have to do because you have to do it or not, then you can do it for us,” he pointed out.

He told the countries that if they could not stop themselves from meddling in Philippines affairs, they should at least be “educated in (their) assessment.”

During the event, professor Hidetoshi Nakamira, of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, also presented the ASEAN@50 book to the Chief Executive.

Highlighting the daylong forum was a panel discussion among former leaders.

“We try to correct it along the way, with our meager resources, certainly, not adopt…,” he added.

He stressed the drug menace he was dealing with is a social problem. “You do not come here upon the invitation of an NGO and the opposite political parties and look only on the number of extrajudicial killings,” he said.

Duterte lamented that he is being labeled as the bad guy with every incident of killing tagged as extrajudicial and attributed to his drug war.

“The style of the country today is that all dead are being classified as extrajudicial killing… in a sense that it is not the property of a court to discuss the matter of how human being should be killed or not,” he said.

He also noted that the drug problem was worse during the past Aquino administration.

Duterte also reiterated his call for anyone to file a case against him before the United Nations if they have evidence to link him to wrongdoing especially extrajudicial killings.

“You know guys, we have the United Nations. If you think, you have qualms against me, go to the United Nations, make your representations, state your complaint and ask the body to investigate us for being a member of that organization,” he said.

“If you begin to impose your values on me and you try to correct things not our way and it is not really applicable, then we have a problem here,” Duterte said, as he lashed out at the NGO called Progressive Alliance, whose members recently visited the country and criticized his administration’s vicious drug war.

“But the question is why were they killed? Why are there victims? So what’s the reason for killing them?” he said.

Counterweight

Confronted with the prospect of losing zero-tariff privilege offered by EU, Duterte said he would rally ASEAN member countries to work together more closely to achieve greater regional development.

“There are so many things that are asked of us, even the products that would enter the European market and the United States,” he said.