From "I will jet ski to the Spratly Islands and plant the flag" to "Kill me if I don't resolve crime and corruption in six months" President Duterte is a man given to making pompous overstatements to prove his sincerity.
Now he has done it again. This time he is promising to send troops to the Middle East in case they are needed.
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| http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/04/16/1690862/duterte-ready-deploy-philippine-troops-help-gulf-allies |
“I said that if you need us, you just call and if you want even, if things break lose, I hope it will not. I pray to God that it will remain fundamentally on the side of the Middle East this time. But there’s a violent activity going on. But we are ready to help you,” the president said.
“If you need troops here, just in the borders for show, just put it in writing that they are here for training, but they can stay here if you want. If you want us to stay for a moment, fine. If you want to deploy us here, we will agree because of our national interest and the lives of the Filipinos,” he added.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/04/16/1690862/duterte-ready-deploy-philippine-troops-help-gulf-allies
"Just in the borders for show?" So they wouldn't even be there to fight? They would only be there for show? And then he goes on to tell the crowd that they can file false papers saying the Philippine army is only in the country for training but they can stay anyway if the host nation wants.
What the heck is even trying to say? Why would any nation want foreign troops inside its borders under false pretences? Why would any nation accept foreign troops especially if they can't even feed themselves?
"If you are in trouble, if you are short with manpower, I have a very disciplined military and I can send them here. You will not have any trouble with them. They are law abiding, well-disciplined and they can stay here, just to send them to the borders," Duterte told businessmen in Qatar on Saturday.
"But I would like to ask you to just feed them because we don't have the money to spend to --- for their food. But give them shelters and they will fight for you. I said we will stand by you," he added.
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/16/17/ph-to-send-troops-to-gulf-states-for-training-esperon
Why would Saudi Arabia and Qatar even take him up on the offer to use Philippine troops? Saudi Arabia and Qatar support ISIS both financially and ideologically. ISIS is in the Philippines. Any reasonable person would conclude that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are therefore supporting terrorism in the Philippines. And Duterte offers them the use of the Philippine Army?
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| http://www.salon.com/2016/10/11/leaked-hillary-clinton-emails-show-u-s-allies-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-supported-isis/ |
Any troops free to be sent to the Middle East should instead be sent to where the areas of terrorist activity are occurring in order to destroy them and bring peace to the Philippines.
But wait! There's more.
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| http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/04/16/17/duterte-assures-businessmen-in-qatar-of-corruption-free-deals-in-ph |
QATAR-President Rodrigo Duterte assured businessmen here that he will not tolerate corruption in government and among investors in the Philippines.
"We will honor contracts. We will honor our obligations. That is in the Constitution itself that there shall be no impairment of the obligation of contracts. So insofar as trade is concerned I can assure you, what we sign and I agree with you will be done even if we lose in the transaction, we will honor what we have promised," Duterte said.
He also told his audience to "shoot" any corrupt officials from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs that will take advantage of them when they do business in the Philippines.
"I give you the authority to… If somebody from the Internal Revenues, Customs would ask you even P10, shoot him." the President said before a large contingent from the Qatar business sector
"Everything will be all right. Everything will be followed. There will be no harassment. There will be no asking of money. It will be a truly honest to goodness transaction," he added.
Duterte is so confident that Qatari businessmen will have a corrupt free time doing business in the Philippines that he has given them permission to shoot any corrupt official who tries to take advantage of them.
Instead of giving facts and figures and showing a systematic reduction of corruption and a flourishing economy and giving them every economic incentive to invest in the Philippines Duterte gives these businessmen his blessing to murder any corrupt official they come in contact with.
Is that really going to encourage anyone to invest in the Philippines? No. It's not.
Much of what he has said this week in the Middle East, not to mention his entire presidency, has not made a bit of sense except in his mind.
What Duterte says reflects on the Filipino people. When he advocates murder that makes Filipinos look like a violent nation of thugs. When he says its ok to use Philippines troops under false pretences, that impugns the entire nation and makes everyone look corrupt.
Who wants to to business with a nation of corrupt murderers?
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