{"id":153932,"date":"2018-02-23T01:45:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T06:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=153932"},"modified":"2018-02-23T01:45:14","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T06:45:14","slug":"alvarez-urges-ph-to-file-diplomatic-protest-vs-u-s-over-intelligence-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/23\/alvarez-urges-ph-to-file-diplomatic-protest-vs-u-s-over-intelligence-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvarez urges PH to file diplomatic protest vs U.S. over intelligence report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alvarez<\/a>
Alvarez in a radio interview on Wednesday, February 21 questioned why the U.S. is even \u201cmeddling\u201d with the Philippines\u2019s affairs. (Photo<\/a>: Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines\u2014House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said that the Philippines should pursue a diplomatic protest against the United States of America over its report tagging President Rodrigo Duterte as a \u201cthreat\u201d to democracy.<\/p>\n

Alvarez in a radio interview on Wednesday, February 21 questioned why the U.S. is even \u201cmeddling\u201d with the Philippines\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnang-una, mag<\/em>-(file) ng protesta ‘yung <\/em>DFA kasi<\/em>, anong pakialam nila sa atin, di ba<\/em>? Sila nga itong maraming kalokohan sa iba’t ibang bansa<\/em> (First of all, the DFA should file a protest because, what do they [United States] care about us, right? They\u2019re the ones who commit a lot of shenanigans in different countries),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The United States Intelligence Community on February 13 released Worldwide Threat Assessment report that covers “threats to US national security.\u201d In this report, Duterte was listed as “regional threats” to US national security in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

“Duterte has suggested he could suspend the Constitution, declare a ‘revolutionary government,’ and impose nationwide martial law. His declaration of martial law in Mindanao, responding to the ISIS-inspired siege of Marawi City, has been extended through the end of 2018,” the report read.<\/p>\n

“In the Philippines, President Duterte will continue to wage his signature campaign against drugs, corruption, and crime,” it added.<\/p>\n

Alvarez refuted this report and said that the U.S. is the \u201cthreat to democracy,\u201d not the Philippines.<\/p>\n

“Well, para sa akin<\/em>, ‘yung United States of America, sila ‘yung banta sa demokrasya ng buong mundo<\/em>. Nanghihimasok sila<\/em>, nakikialam sa<\/em> independence at sovereignty of several nations in the world (Well, for me, the United States of America, they are the threat to democracy in the whole world. They intrude, they meddle with the independence and sovereignty of several nations in the world),\u201d the House Speaker said.<\/p>\n

In spite of this, Alvarez said that the Philippines and U.S. remain \u201cfriends.\u201d He also suggested the formation of a \u201cUnited Nations of Asia\u201d to ensure the interests of the Philippines and other Asian countries.<\/p>\n

The Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday said that it views the report of the U.S. Intelligence Community with \u201csome concern,\u201d and denied that the president is autocratic or has autocratic tendencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US intelligence community’s assessment is myopic and speculative at best,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque added that the President knows and adheres to the law. \u201cHe adheres to the rule of law and remains loyal to the constitution. He wants to uphold the rule of law. He knows about the bill of rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines\u2014House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said that the Philippines should pursue a diplomatic protest against the United States of America …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":153933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[47129,12230,343,47128,10176,46985],"class_list":["post-153932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-diplomatic-protest","tag-pantaleon-alvarez","tag-philippines","tag-united-states-intelligence-community","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-worldwide-threat-assessment","mauthors-katherine-padilla","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}