Duterte hits UN failure to take ‘strong’ actions vs. pirates

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech after leading the awarding ceremony for the 2019 Model Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Family of the Year Award (MOFYA) at the Malacañan Palace on November 28, 2019. TOTO LOZANO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday chastised the United Nations (UN) for its supposed failure to take “punitive and strong” measures to stop piracy at sea.

In a speech delivered at Palace’s Rizal Hall, the President said the UN seems to be lacking when it comes to stepping up its anti-piracy campaign.

“Naisip-isip ko, kind of telling the United Nations, napaka-inutile naman ninyo diyan (I think about kind of telling the United Nations that it is inutile). I mean it has been an inutile body actually. But United Nations has failed establish order in this planet and that is why everybody is just you know, to each his own,” Duterte said.

“Wala naman (It has failed to take action). It has not established order. It has not prevented wars. It does not take any punitive strong action against the pirates,” he added.

Duterte made the remark, as he griped against pirates’ attacks on Filipino seafarers.

The Chief Executive was saddened that sailors from the Philippines, as well as those from Japan and Indonesia, are the “favorites in the menu of the pirates”.

“You know, this shallow Strait of Aden near Angola, there’s a narrow strait where you pass before you can reach the Middle East countries, dadaan ka diyan (you have to pass through it). And it is not the first, the second or the third but yung mga (those) Filipino sailors, whenever they are hijacked in the high seas,” Duterte said.

“Ang kinukuha nila mga Filipino (They are kidnapping Filipinos). We have about six now, seven. Kung hindi Hapon, Pilipino, Indonesians (They kidnap either Japanese, Filipinos, or Indonesians). They are the favorites in the menu of the pirates,” he added.

Earlier this month, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported that nine Filipino crew members of a Norwegian cargo ship were abducted by suspected pirates off the coast of Benin in West Africa on November 2.

A week after, the DFA confirmed that two more Filipino sailors were snatched by pirates in Togo, bringing the total number of abducted Filipinos in African state to 11.

In 2017, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, renewing its call upon all states and coastal states that are victims of piracy and armed robbery to “cooperate in determining jurisdiction and in the investigation and prosecution of all persons responsible for acts of piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia.”