Duterte hits Time magazine for depicting him like a despot
President Rodrigo Duterte slammed on Tuesday Time magazine for including him on its May 14issue cover page, depicting him as a despot.
In a speech in Malacanang, Duterte said the sketch of his face "looks like a monster".
"I was placed with the despots. Am I a dictator? Since when? Since when did I send somebody to prison for just talking against me?," he said.
He said he was even included along with three other world leaders.
"The sketch of my face even looks like a monster. Typically, the drawing itself was really to fit you as a despot," Duterte added.
In the May 14 issue of Time magazine's international edition, Duterte, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was featured by American political scientist Ian Bremmer in his article, "Rise of the strongman."
Bremmer described Duterte as a former mayor of Davao City who usually talked "like a mob boss than a president."
Duterte has been criticized due to his bloody war on illegal drugs.
Duterte said he could accept criticisms for as long as the critics are Filipinos and not foreigners, such as Australian missionary Patricia Fox.
The Bureau of Immigration has canceled Fox's missionary visa and ordered her to leave the country after she joined and spoke at a rally in Davao City last month.
"You know, I can take criticisms from the military. Even the private soldier is entitled to criticize me. A garbage collector or a congressman or a general or whoever, a waiter, can always criticize me and I will accept it in stride," he said.
"You know why? Because he pays for my salary. I am a worker of government and I serve the people. And if you are not satisfied with what I am trying to do or with my work, by all means, you criticize me, and that would really be simply a freedom of expression. But that is limited to Filipinos," the President added.
He said the public should not believe Time magazine, which only included him so that the people would buy its issue.
"In response to this strongman, strongman, I'll never be one," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS
