On Sun, Oct 2, in a speech during the opening ceremony of the 37th Masskara Festival in Bacolod City, President Rodrigo Duterte apologized to the Jewish community for his recent comment referring to Adolf Hitler.
It may be recalled that Duterte had seemingly compared his war on drugs to that of Hitler killing the Jews during World War II.
READ: Malacañang scrambles to defend Duterte’s recent ‘Hitler’ and ‘slaughter’ comments
Duterte explained that he had merely been reacting to those who are comparing him to Hitler.
Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted him as saying, “I want to make it clear here and now, there was no intention on my part to derogate the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Germans.”
He added, “I apologize profoundly and deeply to the Jewish community. It was never my intention, but the problem was, I was criticized using Hitler, comparing (him) to me.”
Duterte made it clear that his apology was only meant for the Jewish community and not for others like the lawyers of the European Union.
Duterte declared, “Pero ‘yung Jewish community lang. Itong mga bobong abogado sa EU, pati sa human rights, ah, ‘Screw you.’ Sipain ko pa kayo.”
(“But it’s just the Jewish community. To these stupid EU lawyers, including human rights advocates, ‘Screw you.’ I’d kick you.”)
It may be recalled that the EU had released a five-page resolution raising concern over the high number of drug suspects killed by police and vigilantes in the Philippines since the Duterte started his drug war.
