{"id":265634,"date":"2020-08-18T03:17:22","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T07:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=265634"},"modified":"2020-08-18T03:17:22","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T07:17:22","slug":"duterte-on-singapore-trip-stop-this-nonsense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/18\/duterte-on-singapore-trip-stop-this-nonsense\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte on Singapore trip: ‘Stop this nonsense’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on August 17, 2020. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is fed up with rumors that he flew to Singapore on a medical emergency, asking fake news peddlers to stop spreading nonsense.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he had no reason to hide any of his trips, especially if it involved the use of public funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung gusto kong umalis, aalis ako<\/em>\u00a0(If I want to leave, I\u2019ll leave). I do not have to keep it a secret because I will not be using any government funds.\u00a0Hindi ko ugali \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s not my personality),\u201d he said in a late-night public address on Monday.<\/p>\n

He said he had \u201cno obligation\u201d to \u201ctravel in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a citizen of this country. The right to travel is guaranteed.\u00a0Kung<\/em>\u00a0guaranteed\u00a0sa inyo, eh di<\/em>\u00a0guaranteed\u00a0\u2018yan sa akin<\/em>\u00a0(If your rights are guaranteed, then my rights are guaranteed). And I do not have to hide it. I said I am not stupid to use government funds.\u00a0Malalaman nang malalaman ng tao \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(People will eventually find out),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, all the foreign trips he took were \u201cofficial trips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been no trip so far that I have undertaken outside of the Philippines using government funds. If at all I go out, it\u2019s official, and it is just right that —\u00a0wala naman akong perang pangbayad ng<\/em>\u00a0(I don\u2019t have money to pay for) the entourage that goes with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even if rumors were true, Duterte said he could travel anywhere he wanted to.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo stop this nonsense about me going to Singapore if at — I said, if at all.\u00a0Kung gusto ko pumunta, pupunta ako. Wala kayong pakialam kung gusto kong pumunta<\/em>\u00a0(If I want to go there, I will. It\u2019s none of your business if I want to go),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he even had more reason to travel since he could not remember the last time he was able to go on a vacation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the right to travel. With more reason ako kay matagal na akong walang bakasyon (for me because I haven\u2019t been on a vacation). If I went somewhere else, well — or if I choose to go to Europe,\u00a0pupunta ako sabihin ko<\/em>\u00a0(I\u2019ll go and announce it)\u2026Then I would have to go on a leave of absence or maintain the control of government by electronic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said whenever he would go out of the country, he would assign either Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea or Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as officer-in-charge to take care of day to day operations in his office.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust leave somebody to take care — it\u2019s either usually Bingbong or\u00a0si<\/em>\u00a0Guevarra. Or if not, if things are not quite good, then I\u2019ll leave it in the hands of the military. Probably it would be the Secretary of Defense\u00a0kung medyo<\/em>\u00a0topsy-turvy\u00a0ang bayan<\/em>\u00a0and I have to leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he was not inclined to travel as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not inclined to do that.\u00a0Pero kung gusto ko, aalis ako<\/em>\u00a0(But if I want to, I\u2019ll go). Let me repeat it: I have no obligation to keep it a secret. For what? But the only thing maybe is if I use your public money. I will never do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said a true leader would \u201calways stay where the crisis is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ka dapat maglagalag kung may problema ang bayan. Napakababa naman ang tingin ninyo sa akin kung ganun.<\/em>\u00a0Well, be that as it may,\u00a0hindi po ako ganun<\/em>\u00a0just to disabuse your mind (You shouldn\u2019t be going around if there\u2019s a problem in the country. You think too lowly of me in that case. Well, be that as it may, I\u2019m not like that just to disabuse your mind),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rumors of Duterte\u2019s trip to Singapore over the weekend circulated over the weekend after a medical jet reportedly took off from Davao City.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s health has always been subject to speculations since the start of his presidency.<\/p>\n

The 75-year-old President suffers from back problems, migraines, and Buerger’s disease \u2014 an inflammation of small- and medium-sized blood vessels but he said these issues do not hinder him from performing his duties as President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is fed up with rumors that he flew to Singapore on a medical emergency, asking fake …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":265635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265634","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=265634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265636,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265634\/revisions\/265636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}