Davao City (CNN Philippines) – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s latest outburst against his critics didn’t spare the United Nations, even if the world body hasn’t spoken directly against him recently.
Duterte has been drawing criticisms from foreign and local media organizations for seeming to justify the assassination of allegedly corrupt journalists.
Related: Duterte stands by statement on media killings
The Reporters Without Borders, which has a consultant status at the U.N., on Wednesday condemned Duterte’s statements that corrupt journalists are legitimate targets for murder and urged the Philippine media to boycott his press conferences until he apologizes.
In response, Duterte dared reporters on Thursday to boycott him.
He started spewing invectives against the U.N. after a reporter asked for his reaction to possible charges against him.
He said he was being threatened with lawsuits because “there is a (U.N.) convention on this, convention on that.”
“B***s*** to them,” he said.
“P*****i** kang U.N. hindi mo ma-solve-solve ‘yung patayan diyan sa Middle East,” he said. “They’re killing people like crazy. You cannot even lift a finger in Africa butchering the black people there.”
[Translation: You son of a b**** U.N. You cannot even solve the killings in the Middle East.]
Related: MTRCB cannot act on Duterte’s curses during press cons
He said the U.N. “should not force your code of conduct on me.”
“I never signed anything which says I have to behave … in this manner or in that manner,” he said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has urged the Philippine government to investigate Duterte for his possible role in the summary executions of crime suspects in Davao city over the past decade.
In his 2009 investigation report, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings included the killings in Davao and called on the government end the use of “death squads” in fighting crime. Duterte has been linked to a clandestine group that has been called as the Davao Death Squad responsible for the murders.
He said Duterte has not done anything to prevent the killings and seemed to have even encouraged or supported them.
The suspicion of his involvement has been sustained through the election campaign as Duterte promised to “suppress” crime, particularly the drug problem, with an iron-hand policy in three to six months after he takes office.
