Lawmakers slam Duterte joke on making Philippines a province of China
OPPOSITION lawmakers thumbed down on Tuesday, February 20, President Rodrigo Duterte’s joke that the Philippines should be a province of China.
“It is absolutely unacceptable for the President, the top diplomat of the country, to joke about making the Philippines a province of China,” Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano said.
He added: “Such irresponsible banter is a slap in the face of the many Filipinos, including our soldiers stationed in our occupied islands, who work tirelessly to defend our territorial integrity from China.”
Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin warned that the such jokes will negate diplomatic attempts to assert Philippine sovereignty.
“It’s becoming a habit of the President to defer always to the wishes of China and such joke manifests his willful subservience at the expense of our sovereignty,” he said.
“With him as President, we will become inutile to assert our rights even through diplomacy and will be sold to China for a pittance. The joke is on us if we don’t call him out for such irresponsible statements,” Villarin added.
For his part, Anakpawis Party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said the joke is not funny. Rather, it was irresponsible considering that China has been constructing military facilities in the South China Sea.
“Even if it is a joke, it is a clear manifestation of the defeatist stand of the Duterte government against the continuing aggressive behavior of China in the South China Sea,” Casilao said.