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| President Rodrigo Duterte |
By Jim Gomez
MANILA, Philippines — The European Union on Monday summoned a Philippine envoy to explain an expletive-laden tirade by President Rodrigo Duterte, who threatened to hang EU officials for opposing his efforts to re-impose the death penalty.
The EU's external action service, the equivalent of a foreign office, said it hauled Charge d'Affaires Alan Deniega in to its Brussels headquarters to provide "an explanation for the recent, unacceptable comments of President Duterte."
The move highlights growing European exasperation with the president. Earlier, the EU denied his allegations that it proposed solving the Philippines' drug problem by creating treatment clinics where illegal drugs such as methamphetamine or cocaine would be dispensed.
The EU Delegation to the Philippines issued a statement saying it has not "suggested, discussed, proposed or considered the use of any substitution drugs when treating addiction to methamphetamine ... or any other drug addiction in the Philippines." It did not mention Duterte by name.
Duterte, who has lashed out at the EU repeatedly for raising human rights concerns over his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, said in a speech Friday the EU had proposed a "health-based solution" to the drug problem that involved dispensing methampetamine, locally known as shabu, cocaine or heroin.
He branded the supposed EU proposal a "government-sponsored idiotic exercise."
Read the full story at PhilStar