The Philippines has “no business being a republic” if it cannot stand on its own feet, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday, February 27 in another defense of his decision to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.
“If we can’t do it, we have no business being a republic. You might as well choose. We can be a territory of the Americans or we can be a province of China,” he said.
Duterte relayed that he asked the police and the military forces whether the country could survive without the VFA.
“My question to the Armed Forces: Can we survive without the Americans? Can we fight the wars? And the military and police said, ‘Sir, we can,’” he said.
Duterte also dismissed insinuations that his decision to terminate the VFA was a “knee-jerk reaction” to the cancellation of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa’s U.S. visa.
“You cannot toy around with the Republic of the Philippines with a knee-jerk reaction. It’s always what is good for our country,” he said.
Dela Rosa, who spearheaded Duterte’s war on drugs during his stint as police chief, said his visa cancellation might be because of his supposed involvement in the alleged extrajudicial killings (EJK) associated with the anti-drug campaign.
Duterte maintained that he is not a murderer, insisting that he ordered the killings without malice.
“I am not a murderer. Lahat ng tao ‘pag inipit mo (When you put people in a corner), I can be everything but not with the malice in the mind…There is no malice. It was just a statement of my being the mayor and the President,” he said Wednesday during the recognition of Filipino artists in Malacañang.
He also said he is taking full responsibility for his drug war.
“Let me unburden your heart. Ako ‘yun. Ako ‘yun (It’s me). I take full legal responsibility. And if there’s somebody who will be executed or put in prison, ako ‘yun (It’s me),” Duterte said.
“Now, I am being made to answer. Yeah, I will answer…It’s all about the dignity of my countrymen, of not being a victim, not being mobbed,” he added. n
