Not everyone was impressed with President Rodrigo Duterte’s United Nations General Assembly speech yesterday.
While Duterte received praise from retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV still slammed the President, saying that he’s not sincere with what he’s saying.
In a tweet, Trillanes that the people who believed his speech are the ones who was convinced that Duterte would really personally visit the West Philippine Sea using a jetski.
“To believe duterte now on his UN statement re WPS, is like believing his jetski campaign promise all over again. Utang na loob, wag kayo pat*nga-t*nga!” Trillanes said.
Aside from Trillanes, Senator Leila De Lima also criticized Duterte and called his UN speech “fake”.
“I have only one word to describe the Duterte who spoke last night before the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly). Plastic. As fake as the dolomite beach his government wasted millions on in the middle of a pandemic,” De Lima wrote.
In his first UN speech, Duterte invoked the arbitral victory against China’s claims in West Philippine Sea in 2016.
“The Award is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon. We firmly reject attempts to undermine it,” Duterte said.
“We welcome the increasing number of states that have come in support of the award and what it stands for — the triumph of reason over rashness, of law over disorder, of amity over ambition. This – as it should – is the majesty of the law,” he added.