Who’s the real bully, the United States or President Rodrigo Duterte?

This was how Senator Antonio Trillanes IV countered on Thursday Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s statement that the US’ reported decision to stop the planned sale of assault rifles to the Philippines was not a scare tactic but a “bully attitude” by the Americans.

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“Napakadali nilang ituro sa iba no pero yung nandito sa ating bayan na pinapatay yung kapwa natin, si President Duterte, ni hindi nila masabihan ng kahit na ano (It’s easy for them to point to others but they can’t accuse President Duterte of anything amid the people who were killed in our country),” Trillanes said during the Kapihan sa Senado.

“Sino ang tunay na bully dito? Hindi nga bully, mamatay tao pa e (Who’s the real bully? Not only a bully but a killer),” added the senator, who is accusing Duterte of allegedly behind the extrajudicial killings in the country and the so-called Davao Death Squad.

Trillanes reiterated that the reported scrapping of the arms deal with the Philippines was an indication that the international community was not happy with what is happening in the country, particularly the reported human rights abuses.

He said there was no debate on the government’s war on illegal drugs but the issue on how to deal with it.

“Ang pinag uusapan dito, ano yung approach mo? Ni ngayon wala ka pang nakikitang wholistic program e on how to deal with drugs. Ang sinasabi lang patayin, patayin. Sa akin mali yan at bilang halal na opisyal ng gobyerno ay tinitindigan ko yan …” he said.

(We are talking about the approach. We haven’t seen a wholistic program on how to deal with drugs. All they say are these drug pushers and users should be killed. For me it’s wrong and as an elected official of the government, I would stand up to it.)

Instead of belittling the criticisms of other nations, Trillanes said, Duterte’s “apologists” should admit that there was really something wrong with the present leadership. RAM/rga

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