Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seems to be on a campaign to prove to the world that he is demonstrably insane. In his latest news grabbing headline, Duterte claims God spoke to him during a flight from Japan on Thursday and warned him the plane would crash if he kept using bad language. That’s right. The Almighty will not kill Duterte for ordering the murdering of thousands of criminal suspects, but he would not only kill Duterte but everyone on his plane because he really, really, really does not like swearing.
You may recall that he called the Pope and U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch” and told Obama to “go to hell.” He has told diplomats raising human rights concerns “fuck you” twice to the European Union, while raising his middle finger.
In Tokyo on Tuesday, Duterte used the same language when speaking about his anger with foreign criticism of his drug war.
It was not the first time Duterte has spoken of his connection with God, whom he said had made him president.
Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s vice-presidential running mate and now his foreign affairs adviser, said Duterte was tired and appeared pensive during the flight back from Japan.
Duterte describes the moment of divine truth: “I was looking at the skies while I was coming over here … everybody was asleep, snoring, but a voice said that, ‘you know, if you don’t stop epithets, I will bring this plane down now.’ . . And I said, ‘who is this?’ So, of course, it’s God. OK.”
That all makes perfect sense in Duterte’s world of course and he announced “So, I promise God … not to express slang, cuss words and everything.”
Maybe his god is Baal.
Well that’s a good start. If he continues to listen to God he may discover that wasn’t His only commandment.
He’s no more insane than any religious person who pretends to receive orders from a deity (help the poor, stop drinking, join the caliphate, etc.).
Interesting that his god is against the saying of certain words but not of murdering people without proper trials.
Either Dutarte is off his meds or is using calculated craziness to sow confusion. My guess is the latter. Remember Ahmadinejad?
God has to draw a line in the sand somewhere. Ask Obama.
Pity his auditory hallucination did not prohibit corruption, murder, or any other human rights abuses. Would have solved the whole problem.
Happens to me all the time; if I don’t brush my teeth, do my work, clean up after myself, etc. God sees all and nothing gets by. So, stop your f*&king swearing.
So he is killing criminal suspects. For the Philippines the organized drug trade is a threat to national security. Not sure of the difference between drone kills and Duterte’s actions, except that we don’t have drone strikes in the US. Not that there are killings in our streets, rightly or wrongly?
I’m not really sure why we don’t drone-kill the drug cartels right across our border. Are they not a type of insurgent? Clancy had a similar scenario with a guided bomb in a more southern country.
Free trade of another kind? Send your drugs, and we’ll send our drones. Fair trade at its finest.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seems to be on a campaign to prove to the world that he is demonstrably insane.
No, he’s trolling the media, and you’re taking the bait.