Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened opponents with prison if they try to impeach him, the latest in what a top U.N. official and an Asian lawmakers’ group this week called a pattern of persecution and assaults on free speech.
Duterte vented his anger late on Thursday amid intense media scrutiny and accusations that he is siding with China over a June 9 sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel, which happened inside Manila’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
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Some high-profile critics, among them a top judge and a former foreign minister, have called that a breach of the constitution, or worthy of his impeachment.
“Me? Will be impeached? I will jail them all,” Duterte told reporters. “Try to do it and I will do it. Son of a bitch.”
He added: “I am challenging you to do it. You really want to force my hand into it? Okay. You sons of bitches, do it. Yes. File it.”
A report on Tuesday by the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights chided the Duterte administration for what it said were threats and aggressive rhetoric and trumped-up criminal charges against opponents that amounted to “deliberate effort to muzzle critics and weaken checks and balances.”
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Asked on Friday about threats to jail opponents, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte was merely upset that people could not see he had the country’s interests at heart.
“He cannot understand why people are against his policy,” Panelo told reporters.
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Let's not give Trump any ideas.https://t.co/YSQLwhE6ZQ
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 28, 2019
He and Donald must be soulmates.
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