EU summons Filipino envoy to explain Duterte tirade

MANILA: The European Union summoned a Philippine envoy to explain an expletive-laden tirade by President Rodrigo Duterte, who threatened to hang EU officials for opposing his efforts to re-impose the death penalty.

The EU’s external action service, the equivalent of a foreign office, said it hauled Charge d’Affaires Alan Deniega in to its Brussels headquarters on Monday to provide “an explanation for the recent, unacceptable comments of President Duterte.”

The move highlights growing European exasperation with the president. Earlier, the EU denied his allegations that it proposed solving the Philippines’ drug problem by creating treatment clinics where illegal drugs such as methamphetamine or cocaine would be dispensed.

The EU Delegation to the Philippines issued a statement saying it has not “suggested, discussed, proposed or considered the use of any substitution drugs when treating addiction to methamphetamine ... or any other drug addiction in the Philippines.” It did not mention Duterte by name.

Duterte, who has lashed out at the EU repeatedly for raising human rights concerns over his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, said in a speech Friday the EU had proposed a “health-based solution” to the drug problem that involved dispensing methampetamine, locally known as syabu, cocaine or heroin.

He branded the supposed EU proposal a “government-sponsored idiotic exercise.”

“The sons of bitches, they want us to build clinics, then we should, instead of arresting or putting them in prison like in other countries, you go there and if you want syabu they will inject you or give you syabu,” he said in a speech before FilipinoChinese businessmen.

“Then if you want cocaine, they will give you cocaine and if it’s heroin, they will give you heroin.”

The EU said that in cooperation with the World Health Organisation and experts, it was working with Manila’s Department of Health and the government’s main anti-drug agency and selected villages to implement a programme that “aims to support recovery from addiction, while keeping families together and developing social and job skills.” — AP