/ AFP PHOTO / STRINGER
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte took offense with the remark of a top United States diplomat in Asia that “his succession of controversial statements” and comments was creating a “climate of uncertainty” among businessmen, and dared these worried foreign businesses to “pack up and leave.”
Duterte, in a speech before he departed for a three-day working visit in Japan, said the comments by US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel was not proper.
He said he initially gave in to the request of Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., to tone down his criticisms of the US, but that when he read the comments of Russel as published in a daily, he decided to be vocal again.
“These Americans are really crazy,” Duterte said, as he held up a newspaper with headlines reporting criticism from US assistant secretary of state Russel.
“Russel says ‘Duterte comments causing worries in business communities’. Then you pack up and leave. We will recover, I assure you,” he said.
“We will live and survive. We have gone through the worst of times in this planet,” he said.
Duterte also called the US official stupid for asking him to tone down his anti-US rhetoric. He said it was the Americans who started criticizing him, even when he was still a Davao City mayor.
“I had a talk with Secretary Yasay, and here’s a guy, his name is Russel, if you can just tone down our rhetoric. But I was not the one who started this rift. They are the ones who started it,” he said.
Duterte cited previous comments by outgoing US ambassador Philip Goldberg when he was still on the campaign trail.
The President said Russel’s statement was an “insult.”
Russel, in an interview with reporters earlier said: “The succession of controversial statements, comments and a real climate of uncertainty about the Philippines’ intentions has created consternation in a number of countries not only in mine, not only in governments, but also a growing concern in other communities and the expat Filipino community, in corporate boardrooms as well.”
“This is not a positive trend,” added Russel who came to the DFA along with his US Defense Assistant Secretary Kelly Magsamen to talk with Philippine officials on Monday, October 24.
Duterte remarked, “Don’t do that to me. Everytime, they threaten us, including the EU (European Union), they think they are brighter than us.”
He stressed that he would never be subservient to the interests of the US, or any other foreign country.
“I am not a lapdog of any country. Only the Filipinos can treat me as a lapdog. Period. Nothing else,” he said.
