Duterte calls Filipinos who believed China row joke stupid

MANILA: President Duterte described as “stupid” Filipinos who believed his political campaign “joke” that he would ride a jet ski and plant a Philippine flag to signify its ownership and sovereignty over the Spratlys island group which the country is disputing with China in the South China Sea.

“That joke, we call it bravado; that bravado is just pure campaign joke. And if you on the other side believed it - maybe Carpio did as well - I would say that you are really stupid,” Duterte said during a televised Cabinet meeting aired late on Monday night.

Duterte was referring to retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio whom he had challenged to a debate for harshly criticising him for being “sot” on China despite the Philippine victory over China in a landmark decision rendered by the UN arbitral court based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Carpio immediately accepted the challenge but in a sudden change of heart, Duterte backed out from the debate and announced he had designated Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, to take his place Carpio reminded Duterte that he made such statement during a forum involving all the aspirants running for the presidency to discuss national issues including China’s territorial claim for almost the whole of the South China Sea in the May 2016 election.

In April 2016, the final debate leading to the presidential election, Carpio said Duterte had vowed he would ride a jet ski to the disputed Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea and plant a Philippine flag there to address the increasing aggression of Chinese vessels in the area.

Critics and netizens, however, pointed out that in deriding and degrading those who believed his joke, he was also apparently referring to the “stupid” 16 million Filipinos who thought he was sincere and thus voted for him and win the presidency.

This was not lost on Carpio who told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the country’s largest circulation newspaper, that Duterte had finally owned up his duping the public during the 2016 campaign.