Duterte tells EU ‘mind your own business’ over death penalty

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has launched an expletive-laced attack on the European Union for demanding that he stop efforts in the country's congress to reinstate the death penalty.

"Why are you trying to impose on us? Why don't you mind your own business? Why do you have to f**k with us, goddamn it?" he told a meeting of Philippine residents in Myanmar during a visit.

In September, the maverick Philippines leader launched the same expletive against the EU when it criticised his war on drugs, which has killed an estimated 7,080 people since July last year and earned widespread criticism internationally.

“Do not impose your culture, or your belief in what would be a government in this planet. Do not impose on other countries, especially us,” he continued, pointedly expressing this part of his speech in English.

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Last week, the European Parliament called for the Philippines to "immediately halt ongoing proceedings to reinstate the death penalty."

Mr Duterte is trying to reinstate the death penalty to support his war on drugs.

Earlier this month, the Philippine House of Representatives approved a death penalty bill, which allows for the execution of drug convicts by hanging, firing squad, or lethal injection.

The EU also expressed “alarm” at Mr Duterte’s call to lower the age for criminal responsibility to nine years.

In the same resolution, the lawmakers called for the release detained Philippine Senator Leila de Lima, who has been Mr Duterte’s fiercest critic. She has been held on drugs charges, which Ms de Lima says are “trumped up”.

Mr Duterte did not mention this aspect of the EU’s demands but last week his spokesman Ernesto Abella condemned the call as interference in domestic affairs.

Mr Duterte said many countries in Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, used the death penalty and that was why he was trying to revive.

He also said that European countries also imposed the death penalty, which is not technically true, with the exception of Belarus.

“As if the other countries of EU there’s no more death penalty. There are still a lot,” Mr Duterte said.