President Rodrigo Duterte remained a self-effacing leader when asked about the successes during his first year in the presidency, leaving the Filipino people to give the score card.
“You can rate me good, very good, excellent or very poor, I don’t mind,” Duterte said in a press interview after talking to the troops at the Police Regional Office 11, Thursday night.
“I am not a guy who would want to rate himself. It is up for the people to do that,” the President added.
Even when he was mayor of Davao, Duterte was not keen on self-rating.
He said that he is just doing his duty to protect the country from the harms of illegal drugs in the society. The President has been criticized for his war on illegal drugs.
“If I make you happy, good, if I make you sad, well, I’m sorry,” he said.
Duterte reiterated that his campaign against illegal drugs will remain and he would not care about the comments of any human rights groups.
“I cannot simply find wrong with a statement, if you destroy my country, I will kill you. What is wrong with that,” he said.
Duterte said that he will not let the next generation to be victimized by the harms of illegal drugs since these are the future of country.
“As a matter of fact, it is my duty to destroy people who will destroy my country,” he said.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that President Duterte has unleashed a human rights calamity on the Philippines in his first year in office.
“The government’s murderous “war on drugs,” drug-related overcrowding of jails, and the harassment and prosecution of drug war critics has caused a steep decline in respect for basic rights since Duterte’s inauguration on June 30, 2016,” the report said. (Armando Fenequito/PNA)
