Duterte on negative reports in int'l media: "I don't care"

MANILA — Under fire for allegedly condoning extralegal killings, President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said he does not care if he is being portrayed by international media in a negative light, saying he is just performing his duty.

“They said I am the most unpopular among the international press. I don’t care,” Duterte told reporters in Catbalogan, Samar. “I have a problem to solve here in my country,” he said.

Malacañang has dared foreign journalists to visit the Philippines so they can see for themselves the extent of the drug menace in the country.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said visiting the country would help the foreign press understand the context of President Duterte’s tough pronouncements on narcotics and crime.

“The international media, as I have repeated time and again, should come to the Philippines and experience the life of the barangay (village) people who have so much drug problems,” Andanar told reporters on the sidelines of the Japan-ASEAN Media Forum in Ortigas.

“It’s not fair for just anybody to conclude about extrajudicial killings, that there’s so much dead without even qualifying which one is dead because of authorized police operation, which ones were killed because of a gang war or regular murders,” he added.

“It’s also unfair for the government to receive such reports without the international media coming to the Philippines and really experiencing the life of those affected by drugs.”

Asked if he thinks the foreign press’ coverage of the anti-drug war was fair, Andanar said he is leaving it to the public to make an assessment.

Various foreign media outlets including BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Time, Forbes and Washington Post have reported about the recent spate of killings in the country that were attributed to Duterte’s crackdown on drugs.

Even some participants of the Japan-ASEAN Media Forum believe that the reports about the killings could put the Philippines in a bad light.

Alongside this development, there have been posts on social media discrediting the press for what some Duterte supporters see as an attempt to discredit the president.

Netizens have been calling the media biased and have alleged that media companies are paid to write negative stories about the president and his war on drugs.

Andanar, however, maintained that the president is just fulfilling a campaign promise that allowed him to achieve victory in the 2016 polls.

“It is the duty of the president to protect the general welfare of this people. He was elected with that platform. He already warned the electorate that if you vote for me, there will be bloodshed. If you don’t want bloodshed, don’t vote for me. But he was voted,” he said.