Duterte berates European MPs

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has berated the European parliament for passing a resolution condemning his plans to revive the death penalty for drug convicts, the media reported on Monday.

"I'll talk in English," he said on Sunday while speaking to Filipino expatriates on a two-day state visit to Myanmar.

"Do not impose your culture or your belief in what would be a government in this planet. Do not impose on other countries, especially us."

"Why don't you mind your own business? Why do you have to f**k with us, goddamn it," the Guardian quoted the President as saying.

Since taking office last July, Duterte, nicknamed "the Punisher" for his lethal approach to policing, has led a bloody war on drugs that has killed more than 7,000 people.

Many of the victims were suspected low-level dealers and alleged drug addicts.

A resolution delivered by European Union lawmakers last week said it was "deeply alarmed" that the Philippines was planning to reintroduce the death penalty and that it considers capital punishment to be "cruel and inhuman ... which fails to act as a deterrent to criminal behaviour", the Guardian reported.

The lawmakers also called for the release of Duterte's highest-profile critic, Senator Leila de Lima, who was arrested last month on drug trafficking charges that the EU said "are almost entirely fabricated".

The body also condemned Duterte's open threats to kill human rights defenders, "credible reports" that Philippines police falsify evidence to justify extrajudicial killings, and plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility to nine years old.

--IANS

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