{"id":183537,"date":"2018-09-29T05:19:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T09:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=183537"},"modified":"2018-09-29T05:19:14","modified_gmt":"2018-09-29T09:19:14","slug":"palace-clarifies-prrds-ejk-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/29\/palace-clarifies-prrds-ejk-remark\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace clarifies PRRD\u2019s EJK remark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cTingin ko po, iyan ay hina-highlight niya na never, never siyang nagnakaw. Pinupulaan siya ng EJK pero hindi po siya napupulaan na magnanakaw siya (I think, he was just highlighting that he never stole money. He is being accused of EJK but never of corruption).\u201d(PCOO FILE PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Friday clarified the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte about the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) which the opposition and critics have been linking to the government\u2019s war on drugs.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte was not serious when the President said his only “sin” is the extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n

\u201cTingin ko po, iyan ay hina-<\/em>highlight\u00a0niya na<\/em>\u00a0never, never\u00a0siyang nagnakaw. Pinupulaan siya ng<\/em>\u00a0EJK\u00a0pero hindi po siya napupulaan na magnanakaw siya<\/em>\u00a0(I think, he was just highlighting that he never stole money. He is being accused of EJK but never of corruption),\u201d Roque said in a radio interview.<\/p>\n

Duterte made the statement in his speech during the oath-taking of career government officials in Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday while defending himself against attacks of opposition Liberal Party president, Senator Francis Pangilinan.<\/p>\n

\u201cNgayon, walang mag-amin. Ito naman si<\/em>\u00a0pontifical Pangilinan,\u00a0akala mo walang kasalanan kung magsalita. Siya pa ‘yung presidente ng<\/em>\u00a0Liberal.\u00a0Tignan mo, pati siya hindi manalo \u2018yan. Ako,<\/em>\u00a0I will talk to — eh political exercise now. What are your sins?\u00a0Ako? Sabi ko nga sa<\/em>\u00a0military,anong kasalanan ko? Nagnakaw ba ako diyan ni piso? Sige daw.<\/em>\u00a0Did I prosecute somebody\u00a0na ipinakulong ko? Ang kasalanan ko lang ‘yung mga<\/em>\u00a0extrajudicial killing (Now, nobody admits. This pontifical Pangilinan, he speaks as if he has no sin. He is even the president of Liberal. Look, he will not even win. Me, I will talk to \u2013 this is political exercise now. What are your sins? Me? I told the military, what is my sin? Did I steal even one peso? Prove it. Did I prosecute somebody whom I sent to jail? My only sin is the extrajudicial killings.),\u201d Duterte was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

Roque added that the President, former mayor of Davao City for over two decades, was just emphasizing that he has never been involved in corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cSinasabi lang niya iyan, kasi nga palaging sinasabi iyan ang ginagawa niya ano. Pero it\u2019s also na dinidiin lang niya na talagang hindi siya nagnanakaw, pero I don\u2019t think na ang konteksto niyan ay literal (He said that because they [critics] kept on saying that he is doing it (EJK). But it\u2019s also he was emphasizing that he never steals but I don\u2019t think its context was literal),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

He also clarified the President\u2019s remark was not self-incriminating since his speech was not under oath.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the President po being himself, being playful, being\u2026 highlighting the point\u00a0na hindi siya<\/em>\u00a0(that he is not) corrupt,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the President was just explaining that the only issue his critics could use against him is the EJKs.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya kapag sinabi niyang ang kasalanan ko lang ay<\/em>\u00a0extrajudicial killing,\u00a0ibig sabihin, ang isyu lang sa akin bilang Presidente ay<\/em>\u00a0extrajudicial killing.\u00a0Iyon ang ibig sabihin nun<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why if he said my only sin is extrajudicial killings, the only issue against him as President is extrajudicial killings. That\u2019s the meaning of it),\u201d Panelo said in another radio interview.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the public should also understand that Duterte, being the first President from Mindanao, is still having difficulty to speak properly in Tagalog.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam mo, Bisaya si Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(You know, the President is Bisaya),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the same Palace event on Thursday, Duterte reiterated that International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has no right to investigate alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are actually exercising functions which you are not supposed to do. It belongs to government. At the very least, you are committing usurpation of authority,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Panelo agreed, saying, \u201cThis ICC is unelectable, unaccountable to the people of a sovereign state. They have no business intruding into the sovereignty of a country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cKailangan igagalang mo iyong Saligang Batas ng isang bansa kasi iyong<\/em>\u00a0(You need to respect the Constitution of one country because the) international law cannot prevail over the domestic law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo earlier said the Philippines does not need the ICC since the country\u2019s justice system is still working well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Friday clarified the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte about the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) which the opposition and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":170146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183537","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}