By: InterAksyon.com
October 2, 2016 5:45 PM
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA - Two days after drawing criticism, mostly from international quarters, for citing Hitler alongside his justification of his tough war on drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte Sunday "profoundly and deeply" apologized to the Jewish community and said he never meant to "derogate the memory of six million Jews murdered" by the Germans.
In a speech as he graced the opening of the Masskara festival in Bacolod City, Duterte reiterated the explanation offered earlier by aides, who had said he did not pull the Hitler reference from thin air, but was simply reacting to critics whom he said had made him out to be some "cousin of Hitler."
He said it was erroneous to frame his war on drugs as akin to Hitler's pogrom, because the latter killed 6 million innocent Jews, while he was running after "criminals."
Duterte said, "I would like to say it here and now. There was never an intention on my part to derogate the memory of 6 million Jews murdered by Germans."
"But I was very emphatic about killing" criminals, he pointed out, and merely cited Hitler to defend himself from what he deemed a wrong comparison.
"If there was something really . . . a bad taste in the mouth..[sorry]..." but added his apology was limited "sa Jewish community lang [only to the Jewish community]" if they felt offended in any way.
"Ang reference nila--kung ako daw si Hitler, na maraming napatay. . . kaya ang sabi ko, "o sige, si Hitler [The critics were asking if I'm Hitler, who killed many peope...so I said, okay, Hitler]. So I apologize, profoundly and deeply, to the Jewish community."
He stressed, though, that his apology was directed at the Jews only, and not to his critics from the United States, the European Union, the UN or the human rights groups.
"These critics of mine," he said, referring to them, "screw you."
He had earlier chafed at what he called his critics' quick recourse to blaming him, his war on drugs and the Philippine police force, for any deaths that can't be ascribed to any suspect or group, as if all deaths under investigation are automatically "extra-judicial killings" for which he must be liable.
