MANILA — Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte appeared to liken himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would “be happy” to exterminate 3 million drug users and peddlers in the country.

Although the administration of President Barack Obama played down the remark, Duterte’s comments triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States, which could create pressure on the U.S. government to take a tougher line with the Philippines leader.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday said Duterte’s comments, in a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam, were “a significant departure” from America’s partnership with the Philippines “and we find them troubling.”

Duterte told reporters that he had been “portrayed to be a cousin of Hitler” by critics.

Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said, “There are 3 million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I’d be happy to slaughter them.

“If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have …,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

“You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”

U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed alarm at Duterte’s comments and urged the Philippines leader to exercise restraint in his use of language, a U.N. statement said.

Dieng also called on Duterte to support an investigation into the reported rise in killings resulting from his anti-drug campaign, the statement said.

In August, Duterte threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations after it called for an end to the killings.

In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman, Anna Richey-Allen, had repeated concerns about reports of extrajudicial killings in the southeast Asian country but offered no response to Duterte’s comment referring to Hitler.

A White House official on Friday stuck to a strategy of stressing Washington’s long-standing ties with Manila, saying, “We continue to focus on our broad relationship with the Philippines and will work together in the many areas of mutual interest.”

How relations between the U.S. and the Philippines evolve will depend more on what Duterte does than on what he says, administration officials have said.

In Hawaii on Friday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with the defense chiefs of southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines, and U.S. officials said they would use the forum to clarify comments by Duterte that throw into doubt his commitment to military ties with the United States, including joint exercises and patrols.

Carter, speaking before Duterte’s remarks in Davao, said Washington had an “ironclad” alliance with Manila.

Since Duterte took office on June 30, more than 3,100 people have been killed since then, mostly alleged drug users and dealers, in police operations and vigilante killings.

Duterte, who was elected in May on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people, has insulted Obama and in a number of remarks he has undermined the relationship between Manila and Washington.

On Friday, reacting to critical comments on his war on drugs by U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Benjamin Cardin, Duterte said, “Do not pretend to be the moral conscience of the world. Do not be the policeman because you do not have the eligibility to do that in my country.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project, called them “outrageous.”

“Duterte owes the victims (of the Holocaust) an apology for his disgusting rhetoric,” Cooper said.

The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said Duterte’s comments were “shocking for their tone-deafness.”

“The comparison of drug users and dealers to Holocaust victims is inappropriate and deeply offensive,” said Todd Gutnick, the group’s director of communications. “It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster.”

Duterte has said there will be no annual war games between the Philippines and the United States until the end of his six-year term, and his hostility may make Washington’s strategy of rebalancing its military focus toward Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China more difficult to achieve.

Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said Obama was “taking the long view” in dealing with Duterte. Obama leaves office in January.

Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said the U.S-Philippines alliance was not necessarily at risk, but Washington could seek to focus on ties elsewhere in the region.

“We are all in some sense becoming, by necessity, desensitized to Duterte’s language,” he said.

“Diplomatically, the U.S. would say they’ll continue to work with him and the alliance is strong. But it’s whether they’ll continue to strengthen that alliance or not.” </s> VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defiantly reaffirmed his controversial campaign against illegal substances Tuesday and called for a redoubling of crime-fighting efforts across Southeast Asia as he prepared to face two prominent critics of his policy: President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“We shall not be cowed. We must press on,” he declared in a speech at a business and investment conference on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which he is attending. He called for increased use of intelligence gathering and more arrests.

Duterte also threatened earlier to pull the Philippines out of the United Nations over criticism of his crackdown on illegal substances that has led to a wave of extrajudicial killings. More than 2,000 people have been killed since June 30, when he took office after winning election on a promise to fight crime and corruption.

The summit has been overshadowed by Obama’s canceling of a meeting with Duterte after the latter warned him not to ask about the killings and used profane language when discussing Obama.

On Wednesday, Duterte is to attend a gala dinner with both Obama and Ban, as well as join a meeting that the two leaders will have with ASEAN heads of state and government.

Earlier Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over his remarks about Obama. </s> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to personally tear apart and eat Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants, in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge for deadly attacks.

"They will pay. When the time comes, I will eat you in front of people," Duterte told an audience of Filipinos late on Monday night while in Laos for a regional summit.

"If you make me mad, in all honesty, I will eat you alive, raw."

Duterte often hurls abusive insults at critics and is waging a brutal war on crime in which nearly 3,000 people have been killed since he took office on June 30.

His aides often urge reporters against taking Duterte's comments literally, cautioning that the 71-year-old former lawyer speaks in a crude language of the people.

During the election campaign earlier this year Duterte attracted widespread criticism for saying he had wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who had been sexually assaulted and murdered in a Philippine prison riot.

Duterte, 71, also claimed to keep two mistresses in cheap boarding houses who he took to short-stay hotels for sexual encounters.

Duterte on Monday offered a particularly vivid description of how he would like to eat Abu Sayyaf militants, who killed 15 soldiers last month and are accused of a bombing in his home city last week that claimed 14 lives.

"I will really carve your torso open. Give me vinegar and salt and I will eat you. I'm not kidding," Duterte said, according to an official video of his speech posted on Tuesday.

"These guys are beyond redemption."

The Abu Sayyaf are a small band of Islamic militants based on remote southern islands of the mainly Catholic Philippines and are listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation.

They are notorious for kidnapping foreigners to extract ransoms, and this year beheaded two Canadian hostages.

Duterte also on Monday caused a major diplomatic rift with the United States after branding President Barack Obama a "son of a whore" who would wallow like a pig.

Duterte made the remarks in response to comments by Obama's aides that the US president would raise concerns about the Philippine war on crime when the pair met in Laos.

Obama abruptly cancelled the meeting, which was scheduled for Tuesday, because of the tirade. </s> If Putin can do it, why can't he?

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said the Philippines might withdraw from the International Criminal Court - an announcement that served his twin aims of flattering Russia and expressing disdain for critics of a "drug war" that's left thousands dead.

Facing condemnation for airstrikes in Syria and the annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree to have Russia withdraw from the court. In recent months three other countries - South Africa, Burundi and Gambia - have also said they plan to leave.

Now Duterte may follow. "They are useless, those in the International Criminal [Court]," he told reporters on Thursday. If Russia and China want to form a "new world order," the Philippines would be the first to join, he said.

The whole thing is classic Duterte - an angry, off-the-cuff response to criticism that may or may not result in an actual change.

The president of the Philippines came to power this summer on a promise to "kill all" the country's drug dealers and users. In his first four-and-a-half months on the job, thousands of Filipinos have killed in the name of his anti-drug campaign, either shot in late night raids or gunned down by masked assassins, often after being named by police.

Duterte has not taken kindly to questions about the killing - especially from the U.S. At a summit in September, he blasted President Obama, lecturing him on colonialism and using a slang term that translates as "son of a whore." He's since repeatedly threatened to end U.S.-Philippine military cooperation and align himself with China and Russia without actually notifying the U.S. Embassy of any new policy.

It's no surprise that Duterte isn't a fan of the ICC. In October, Fatou Bensouda, an ICC prosecutor, said she was watching the Philippines for signs of officials "ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing" to crimes against humanity.

"I am deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage state forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force," she said.

Duterte on Thursday set off for an APEC summit in Lima, Peru, where he reportedly plans to meet China's Xi Jinping and his new pal, Putin. </s> Rodrigo Duterte, the new president of the Philippines, gives good copy. Here’s a quote from his final election rally: “Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I’d kill you. I’ll dump all of you into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there.”

And here’s another, from last Sunday, after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime condemned Mr Duterte’s “apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings.”

“I do not want to insult you,” Duterte said. (He only called them “stupid.”) “But maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that rude, we might just as well leave. So take us out of your organisation. You have done nothing. Never. Except to criticise.”

What upset Ban Ki-moon and the UNDOC is the fact that Duterte is having people murdered. Since he took office three months ago, some 900 “suspected drug-dealers” have been shot dead by police and civilian vigilantes acting in his name. None was found guilty by a court, and some, of course, were completely innocent.

Duterte is not denying it or apologising. Before he leaves office, he says, he’ll just give himself an amnesty: “Pardon given to Rodrigo Duterte for the crime of multiple murder, signed Rodrigo Duterte.”

“The Punisher,” as he was known when he was mayor of Davao, is very serious about his “war on drugs”: he recently said he would kill his own children if they took drugs. But crime is not the Philippines’ biggest problem, and it’s not clear what else he is serious about.

He talks vaguely about making the Philippines a federal country, but no details of his policies and plans have emerged. In fact, he has spent most of the time since his election down south in his Davao stronghold, not in Manila.

But he does have a plan of sorts for what to do after he walks out of the United Nations. He says he may ask China and African countries to walk out too and form a rival organization. He doesn’t know much about China or Africa, so maybe he thinks they would like to get together and defy the parts of the world where governments believe that killing people is wrong.

“Duterte Harry” (another nickname) is very popular in the Philippines, but he is not really a threat to global order. The hundred million Filpinos will have to live with him for the next six years, but the United Nations is not doomed. In fact, it is doing better than most people give it credit for.

One proof of this is the fact that the Secretary General now has the right to criticise a member government merely for killing its own citizens. That’s not what it was designed for. When it was created in 1945, as the catastrophe of the Second World War was ending, its main goal was to prevent any more wars like that.

The founders tried to give it the appearance of a broader moral force by signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, but that was mainly window-dressing. The UN was created by the great powers to prevent any government from launching another war of international aggression, not to make governments treat their own citizens better.

In fact, each major power was effectively guaranteed the right to do whatever it wanted to its own citizens, so long as it did not attack the neighbours. In this, the new UN was just recognizing reality, for every great power was determined to preserve its own “sovereignty.” Even for smaller powers, the great powers could rarely agree on what kind of intervention was desirable, and who should do it.

The UN has done well in its original task: it shares the credit with nuclear weapons for the fact that no great power has fought any other for the past 71 years. It has gradually moved into other areas like peace-keeping and promoting the rule of law in the world, but it never interferes inside the territory of the great powers. Even in smaller countries it almost never intervenes without the invitation of the local government.

So when Duterte called the UN useless because “if you are really true to your mandate, you could have stopped all these wars and killings,” he was talking through his hat. Besides, he would never accept UN intervention in his own country to deal with an alleged crime wave. He’s just talking tough because he hates being criticized.

It’s very unlikely that he will carry out his threat. The UN is the keystone in the structure of international law that, among many other things, deters China from settling its territorial dispute with the Philippines by force. Rodrigo Duterte is just a problem for the Philippines, not for the UN or the world.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. </s> The following content is sourced from external partners. We cannot guarantee that it is suitable for the visually or hearing impaired.

This content was published on March 14, 2018 10:15 AM

FILE PHOTO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte points to photographers during an awarding ceremony for outstanding government workers, at the Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Ezra Acayan/File Photo

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Wednesday it is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to what President Rodrigo Duterte called "outrageous" attacks by U.N. officials and violations of due process by the ICC.

The decision marks an about-face by Duterte, who initially welcomed a preliminary ICC examination announced last month into a complaint, filed by a Philippine lawyer, that accuses him and top officials of crimes against humanity, committed during a war on drugs that has killed thousands of people.

A 15-page statement, dated March 13 and not signed by Duterte, said the withdrawal from the ICC's founding treaty, the Rome Statute, was "effective immediately".

That was confirmed separately by Duterte's spokesman and his legal counsel, who both said the ICC's examination was part of a plot by the president's enemies.

Duterte's statement said the withdrawal was because of "baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks" by U.N. officials, and what he said was an attempt by the ICC prosecutor to seek jurisdiction over him "in violation of due process and presumption of innocence".

ICC spokesman Fadi el Abdallah referred most questions to the court's prosecutors, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

Duterte's war on drugs has caused international alarm and fierce criticism from some U.N. rapporteurs and officials, including U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, who on Friday said Duterte should submit himself for a psychiatric examination.

The maverick former mayor has sparred relentlessly with critics and refused to change his approach, or accept that police may have executed suspected dealers, as activists allege.

Police deny allegations of murder and cover-ups and say they killed about 4,100 drug dealers in shootouts. Police say they have no ties to armed men responsible for the deaths of about 2,300 drug users and peddlers.

Duterte, who is hugely popular among Filipinos, has no love for the ICC, calling it "useless" and "hypocritical".

He at first dared the ICC to indict him, saying he was willing to rot in jail for his people. He then said he would prefer a firing squad to prison.

He has recently changed his tune, telling security forces not to cooperate should there be any international investigation. He last week said the ICC would "not in a million years" have jurisdiction.

The ICC's preliminary examination into the complaint seeks to establish whether crimes have taken place. Such a process typically takes years.

Jude Sabio, the Philippine lawyer who filed the ICC complaint last year, said Duterte's move was predictable, futile and designed to appeal to his base.

"Looks like they are really afraid. Why? They feel that this will proceed to an investigation," Sabio told Reuters.

"His statement is only good for politics, just so his supporters can hear that he is withdrawing from the ICC. But it will have no binding legal effect."

According to ICC rules, the withdrawal becomes effective one year after receipt of the notification. Duterte and the Philippines are under the jurisdiction of the ICC as a result of being a member, and pulling out would not change that jurisdiction retroactively.

The ICC can only intervene in a member state when that state is unable or unwilling to carry out investigations and prosecute suspected perpetrators. The Philippines says its legal processes are functional and independent.

Senator Antonio Trillanes, who filed supplementary communications to support Sabio's complaint, said the withdrawal was flip-flopping by Duterte, who "knows that there is no way out for him in the ICC".

"Duterte, by withdrawing from the ICC, has practically admitted that he is guilty of the allegations filed against him," he said in a statement. </s> Rodrigo Duterte is to withdraw the Philippines from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it opened a crimes against humanity investigation into his brutal war on drugs.

In a lengthy statement, the Philippines president accused the ICC and the United Nations of a crusade against him, denouncing what he described as “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person”.

“I therefore declare and forthwith give notice, as president of the republic of the Philippines, that the Philippines is withdrawing its ratification of the Rome statute [the treaty that established the ICC] effective immediately,” said Mr Duterte.

The ICC announced last month it was investigating allegations that Mr Duterte had committed crimes against humanity in his war on drugs, which has killed an estimated 8,000 people since he took office in May 2016.

Mr Duterte initially said he welcomed the chance to defend his name. But on Wednesday he said the ICC had shown a “brazen ignorance of the law” and claimed that the Rome statute was fraudulently implemented in the Philippines to begin with and therefore not “effective or enforceable”.

Philippine politicians met the announcement with scorn and anger. Congressman Antonio Tino said the move was “utterly self-serving and driven by sheer panic at the prospect of a trial before the ICC for crimes against humanity related to his murderous war on drugs”. Mr Tino added: “Saving his own skin has taken precedence over the long-term commitment made by the Philippines state to human rights.”

Kabataan party representative Sarah Elago said it showed that “Duterte intends to impose his fascist and tyrannical tendencies even against international critics”.

“Only the guilty become too eager to run away from prosecution,” Ms Elago added. “If indeed he wants to prove his innocence, what better platform than a court?”

Relations between the Philippines and the international community have become increasingly antagonistic in recent weeks. Last week, the department of justice included a UN special rapporteur on a list of people declared to be communist terrorists. In response, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said Mr Duterte “needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric examination”.

In his statement on Monday, Mr Duterte said Mr Hussein’s comments were clear evidence of “international bias” and that the ICC was “being utilised as a political tool against the Philippines”.

He also described the ICC’s inquiry – which involves looking into a 77-page report submitted to it last year that allegedly documents Mr Duterte’s crimes against humanity going back to 1988 when he was mayor of Davao – as “unduly and maliciously created”.

When the Philippines ratified the Rome statute in 2011 – nine years after it came into force – it was seen as a big step forward for human rights in Asia. The country’s withdrawal will be seen as a blow for international accountability in the region. The ICC, based in The Hague, is the world’s only permanent international tribunal that looks into war crimes and crimes against humanity. </s> The US president and his Philippines counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, were set to meet in Laos this week, where Obama is attending a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders. White House officials previously said Obama would confront the Philippines President about his country's handling of drug dealers, including extra-judicial killings , or government executions without the benefit of judicial proceedings or due process.

But the Filipino leader did not take kindly to that notion.

"Who does he think he is? I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people," Duterte scoffed in a speech Monday. "Son of a b****, I will swear at you."

Duterte went on to blame the US for causing the unrest on the southern Philippines Island of Mindanao. </s> The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, will embark on a short visit to Cambodia next week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Chum Sounry confirmed Duterte, known by the moniker “the Punisher”, would visit the Kingdom on December 13 and 14. Sounry could not elaborate on his meeting schedule, which will be finalised today.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and Duterte have bonded in the past over chronic drug problems in their respective states – though the premier stopped short of promoting Duterte’s bloody tactics. More than 5,800 have been killed since July 1 under Duterte’s war on drugs.

Despite what countless commentators have named as clear rights abuses, government spokesman Phay Siphan said Cambodia had no right to interfere in Filipino affairs.

Last month, the Philippines’ Foreign Ministry released a statement slamming David Scheffer, the UN secretary-general’s envoy to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as “irresponsible”, after he urged Filipino leaders to “take note” of a final guilty verdict for crimes against humanity for Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan.
In last week's meeting between Indonesian president Joko Widodo and Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, Widodo today says that Duterte allegedly said that he '(would) not interfere' in the execution of accused drug smuggler and Philippine national Mary Jane Veloso. However, today a Manila Bulletin article says that Manny Piñol, the Philippines Agriculture Secretary, states that Duterte actually asked for clemency for Veloso.