Duterte: EU chief brushed aside EJK

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte claimed he raised the issue of extrajudicial killings during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union (ASEAN-EU) summit, but European Council President Donald Tusk brushed it aside.

“I was the one who injected the topic. He was not interested at all. There were a lot of TV… the TV was working there… In my intervention… I inserted the matter of extrajudicial killing,” Duterte said in a press briefing after the closing ceremony of the 31st ASEAN summit on Tuesday night.

Duterte lamented that critics of his war on drugs are focusing too much on killings but not on the negative effects of drug addiction. 

“I think we were in the same group and I said, ‘Whatever happened to that precious phrase. It’s a Western thing. The right to be heard,” the President said. 

“You thought it’s about democracy, now your hearts bleed for the criminals?” he added. 

Duterte went on to explain how the use of shabu or methamphetamine damages the human brain, refuting claims that the illegal drug does not harm human health. 

He also maintained that he would not accept aid from donors who would meddle with the Philippines’ internal affairs. 

“The EU is offering us, I don’t know what, how much this time. So the secretary of finance asked me if I’m willing to accept them. Give it to the persons you believe who will tell you the truth,” Duterte said. 

Asked if Tusk talked to him about EU donations, Duterte replied: “Forget it. We will survive even if we have to eat dried fish and rice. We will survive.”

The President has assailed the EU for calling him out on the deaths tied to his war on illegal drugs. 

Duterte has a piece of advice for his critics

“My advice to everybody, the ones that I curse publicly is: do not get your documents from the opposition and from the communists because I said, they are all falsified,” he said.