By Junex Doronio
MANILA — The cat is out of the bag, so to speak.
This is after former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte affirmed his love for China as he also expressed doubts that the United States will defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack in the South China Sea.
This developed as President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Friday (12 April 2024) questioned Duterte as to what he compromised in the “secret agreement” he made with China.
“The first question that I have is clear so now, we need to know, what did you agree to? What did you compromise? Ano ‘yung pinamigay niyo? Bakit nagagalit sa atin ang mga kaibigan natin sa China dahil hindi kami sumusunod? Ano ‘yung dapat naming gawin? Ano ‘yung laman nu’ng secret agreement na ‘yan?” Marcos Jr. said.
But this time, FPRD could no longer conceal where his heart was.
“I love China more than the Americans, simply because I do not believe in their habit, and the habit of saying things and doing what they are doing now,” Duterte said in the article posted on April 12 in the Global Times, a Chinese state-funded English language newspaper.
The feisty ex-president also told Chinese journalists that the US is provoking the Philippine government to “find a quarrel and eventually maybe start a war.”
“So I am very sure of that – America is giving the instructions to the Philippine government to ‘not be afraid because we will back you up,’” Duterte said.
“But I do not think that America will die for us. And yet America has so many bases in the Philippines now,” he stressed.
(el Amigo/MNM)
