Just when we thought that the whole debacle over President Rodrigo Duterte making a reference Adolf Hitler was over — here it is again courtesy of somebody totally unexpected.
In a Facebook live video, Miss Philippines-Earth 2016 Imelda Bautista Schweighart asked Miss Earth Austria 2016 Kimberly Budinsky if Hitler was from her country.
The video starts out with Schweighart and Budinsky smiling for the camera. Then, Schweighart asks Budinsky, “So, is Hitler from Austria?”
“OK, that’s a bad question because we normally don’t talk about Hitler. But, yeah, he is,” Budinsky answered.
To which Schweighart exclaimed: “Oh my God! Our President is doing Hitler stuff here in the Philippines!”
Budinsky responded with a nervous gesture and said, “Well…that’s how it is.” Then she asked Schweighart, “Were we… Are we live?”
Schweighart answered, “On my Facebook.”
ABS-CBN News reported that Schweighart “immediately deleted the video after drawing flak from netizens who criticized her reckless remarks.” However, a copy of the video is still available in ta Facebook page called Pageant Central.
The report noted: “More than two weeks ago, President Duterte said in a speech that he would be happy to slaughter three million drug addicts. He likened this act to Hitler’s systematic extermination of millions of Jewish people in the 1940s. Several Jewish groups and international organizations expressed their rage over the distasteful statement.”
The President has since apologized to the Jewish community. In fact, he did it before the members of the Jewish Association of the Philippines at the Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year celebration at the Beit Yaacov Synagogue in Makati.
The Philippine Star later reported that “Israel, through its top diplomat in the Philippines, Ambassador Effie Ben Matityau, accepted President Duterte’s apology.
