(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte is mulling calling for a special session of Congress to ensure the welfare of Filipinos amid the heightening tensions between Iran and Iraq and the United States.
“Ngayon I suggest that Congress even for about … bahala na kung one or two days …(to) discuss the problems, the ramifications,” Duterte said after signing the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.
The President said he was worried about the situation in the Middle East, as Iran “seems to be bent on” retaliating against the United States for the killing of its top military official Qassam Soleimani in Iraq.
Iraq, for its part, has slammed the US for what it said was its attack on its sovereignty.
According to Duterte, he thinks Iran’s retaliation “will come in a matter of time.”
“There is much hurt…retaliation or cry for blood is there. I don’t worry, were it not for a fact that there are a lot of Filipinos there and it would take us a huge gargantuan effort just in case it breaks out, how to bring them back safely,” he said.
Earlier, President Duterte met with the country’s high-ranking military and intelligence officials, and tasked the Armed Forces of the Philippines with repatriating Filipinos in Iran and Iraq should hostilities break out there.
