(Eagle News) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Saturday (December 17) that the United States military troops should be “prepared to leave” as previous military deals with the US would soon be abrogated following the US threat to defer millions of dollars in foreign aid to the country.
In a speech past midnight Saturday (December 17) shortly after arriving from his four-day state visits in Cambodia and Singapore, a visibly tired but angry Duterte lashed at the US for “having the gall to cut foreign aid” to the Philippines after “living off the fat of the land for years.”
He called those in charge of US foreign aid “hypocrites” for threatening to cut aid and assistance to the Philippines as they questioned his anti-drug war and the “rule of law and civil liberties” in the country.
Before his speech, he complained about his throbbing headache, saying his schedule in Cambodia and Singapore were almost “hour after the hour.”
“It’s tiring and I’ve always avoided… but they say it is part of my duty,” he said at the start of the speech.
“I am glad to be back from my state visits to the kingdom of Cambodia and republic of Singapore,” he said.
But a question after his speech about the US reaction on his anti-drug war got him angry, as he recalled the violence inflicted by US forces on the Filipino people for years.
-Duterte to US: “You hypocrites!” –
“Come on America. You stayed in my country for 50 years! You made us a colony. You lived off the fat of the land. How dare you say u will cut the assistance and aid! We do not need it. Kayo! You owe the Philippines an apology for all the massacres, especially the Moros of Mindanao,” a very upset Duterte said.
“P__ina kayo! Kayo ang may utang sa amin! You sat on my land for 50 years. You oppressed us for many years, killed so many people. In Samar, because one colonel died of your troops, you massacred all the males above (the age of) 10. They were all killed. That’s is how civilized you are,” Duterte said, as he recalled the 1902 Balangiga massacre in Samar.
The infamous order then of US General Jacob H. Smith’s to “Kill Everyone Over Ten” had elicited outrage even in the US in the early 1900s, and was even the caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902.
“You hypocrites! You have the gall to cut your aid. You enjoyed the fat of my land for 50 years. Shut up you hypocrites!” Duterte, whose voice was almost shaking in anger, said.
He said the US should already prepare for the repeal of an agreement on deployment of troops and equipment for exercises, declaring “bye-bye America”, and we don’t need your money.
He recalled how the present US administration criticized him over reports of extra-judicial killings in his campaign against drugs.
-“Prepare to leave,” Duterte tells US military-
“We can survive without American money, but you know America you might also be put to notice. Prepare to leave the Philippines. Prepare for the eventual repeal or the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement.”
The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), signed in 1998, accorded legal status to thousands of U.S. troops who were rotated in the country for military exercises and humanitarian assistance operations.
“We do not need the money, China said they will provide so many, and we’ll give you the money. So bye bye America and work on the protocols that would eventually move you out from the Philippines,” he said, adding his decision would come “any day soon” after reviewing another military deal, Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA)
The firebrand leader was visibly upset and vented his anger on Washington because of a decision by the board of the Millennium Challenge Corp, a U.S. government foreign aid agency, to defer a vote on the re-selection of Manila for compact development due to human rights issues.
The threat made on Saturday (December 17) to end a military pact with the United States was a “tit-for-tat” response to American aid being deferred because of concerns about his deadly crime war.
-Tit for tat-
Duterte reacted angrily to the announcement by the US government this week that a decision on a multi-year aid package potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars had been put off.
“Tit-for-tat. If you can do this, so do we, it ain’t one-way traffic.”
The American Millennium Challenge Corporation announced this week that a decision had been deferred over whether to continue giving aid, after an initial five-year package worth more than $430 million expired in May.
“This decision reflects the Board’s significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines,” US embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina said on Thursday.
The US government set up the Millennium Challenge Corporation to promote economic growth and reduce poverty around the world.
However countries can only qualify if they “demonstrate a commitment to just and democratic governance, investments in its
people, and economic freedom”, according to the corporation’s website.
The United States has been a vocal critic of Duterte’s war on drugs, which has claimed about 5,000 lives since he took office in late June, with President Barack Obama urging Duterte to prosecute it “the right way”.
The criticism has severely strained ties between the longtime allies, with Duterte angered at what he insists is unfair interference in the Philippines’ sovereign affairs.
Duterte has made repeated threats to downgrade or even end military and diplomatic ties, while moving to establish closer ties with US rivals China and Russia.
Duterte has already curtailed many of the war games held between the two nations in the Philippines.
Duterte on Saturday said he was hoping for bilateral relations to improve when US president-elect Donald Trump took office next year.
“We talk in the same language and I like your mouth it’s like mine, and I said yes Mr. President we’re similar, and you know people of the same feather flock together,” he told journalists after his state visits to Singapore and Cambodia.
“I will just wait, I will let Obama fade away,” Duterte said in a long press conference in his hometown of Davao that began shortly after midnight when he returned from a state visit to Singapore.
But Duterte, a socialist who has said he admires the leadership styles of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, also signalled he would lead the Philippines away from the United States even with a friendly Trump as US president.
“I am not inclined to side with you (the United States) any more,” he said.
(With Reuters, Agence France Presse reports)
